The nurse returned with her arms full of clothes.
"There is a long one attached to the bonnet, but we never pull it over our faces, and I am afraid if Mrs. Thompkins did so, it would attract attention."
"Yet something must be done to conceal her face."
"Leave that to me, sir. I used to help in private theatricals once upon a time."
"That is splendid! I will go downstairs now and wait till you have got Mrs. Thompkins ready."
"Give me a quarter of an hour and you will be astonished at the result." She seemed to have thrown her whole heart into the business.
When Cyril returned, he found Priscilla really transformed. Her yellow curls had been plastered down on either side of her forehead. A pair of tinted spectacles dimmed the brilliancy of her eyes and her dark, finely-arched eyebrows had been rendered almost imperceptible by a skilful application of grease and powder. With a burnt match the nurse had drawn a few faint lines in the girlish face, so that she looked at least ten years older, and all this artifice was made to appear natural by means of a dingy, black net veil. A nurse's costume completed the disguise.
"You have done winders, nurse. I can't thank you enough," he exclaimed.
"Don't I look a fright?" cried Priscilla a little ruefully.
"No, you don't. That is just where the art comes in. You are not noticeable one way or the other. It is admirable. And now you had better be going."
"There is no one about just now. I will take Mrs. Thompkins to the front door. If we are seen, it will be supposed that she is some friend of mine who has been calling on me. I will watch till I see her safely in the car," the nurse assured him.
"By the way, as I have to pretend not to know of my patient's departure, I had better not return till you have left."
"All right. Good-bye, nurse. I shall stay here a quarter of an hour so as to give you a good start. Good-bye, my dear."
The next fifteen minutes seemed to Cyril the longest he had ever spent. He did not even dare to follow Priscilla's progress from the window. Watch in hand he waited till the time was up and then made his way cautiously out of the house without, as luck would have it, encountering any one.
The taxi was no longer in sight! With a light heart Cyril walked briskly to the doctor's office.