Rose looked up at him quickly and her cheeks paled.
"Do you--think that----" she stopped short.
The expression of his eyes gave her the answer.
"Hush!" he whispered. "It is only a question of time--and a short time!"
Rose slipped out and he returned to his patient in time to hear Noel reorganizing her wardrobe, with much laughter, and making plans for a trip to the country. She was smiling faintly, but the smile faded when he made her take some more of the bitter medicine.
"Tastes rather horrible, eh?" he said with a smile, "but you feel better, don't you?"
"Yes, thank you," answered Jacqueline, weakly. "I don't suffer at all. It's my strength--I feel so--weak!"
"Your strength will come back fast enough!" he assured her heartily. "I'll tell you what we'll do! I shall take you to my house in Biarritz! There I can look after you comfortably and easily, and you'll be around in no time!"
"Oh, doctor!" she cried, a grateful catch in her voice. "You are too kind! But it's impossible. I should be in the way."
"Not the least bit in the world!" he replied briskly. "The house is a big comfortable sort of a barn. I live there all alone, excepting an elderly sister, and she will be only too happy to have you. You'll be with friends there; for, although you don't know it, my sister and I have been your friends for a long time."
"My friends?" she repeated, with a little questioning smile.
"He saved Raymond's life, you know," explained Noel, quickly. The expression of Jacqueline's face altered in a moment to one of unutterable gratitude. She seized his hand and kissed it passionately.
"Doctor, I--I--cannot thank you!" she murmured brokenly.
The doctor gently disengaged his hand and stepped back, turning his face away. The pity of the scene had all but overcome the well-schooled emotions of the man of medicine.
"He and his sister did all they could to console Floriot," whispered Noel; "the poor chap was broken-hearted."
Noel felt the limp figure stiffen at the mention of the hated name.
"Not as broken-hearted as I was!" she exclaimed, bitterly.
"How do you know, Jacqueline? 'Judge not, lest ye be judged,'" he quoted softly.
"I have been judged!" she replied in the same hard undertone. "He drove me out of his house like a dog!"