Lesage, Mr. Hewet," she replied
cautiously, as though her words might be used against her. "The case is
serious, but you may feel quite certain that we are doing all we can for
Miss Vinrace." She spoke with some professional self-approbation. But
she realised perhaps that she did not satisfy the young man, who still
blocked her way, for she shifted her feet slightly upon the stair and
looked out of the window where they could see the moon over the sea.
"If you ask me," she began in a curiously stealthy tone, "I never like
May for my patients."
"May?" Terence repeated.
"It may be a fancy, but I don't like to see anybody fall ill in May,"
she continued. "Things seem to go wrong in May. Perhaps it's the moon.
They say the moon affects the brain, don't they, Sir?"
He looked at her but he could not answer her; like all the others, when
one looked at her she seemed to shrivel beneath one's eyes and become
worthless, malicious, and untrustworthy.
She slipped past him and disappeared.
Though he went to his room he was unable even to take his clothes off.
For a long time he paced up and down, and then leaning out of the window
gazed at the earth which lay so dark against the paler blue of the sky.
With a mixture of fear and loathing he looked at the slim black cypress
trees which were still visible in the garden, and heard the unfamiliar
creaking and grating sounds which show that the earth is still hot.
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