I have learned a great many
things since you came."
"There were some things you did not need to learn," said the Doctor
quietly. "Kindness and sympathy, and rare understanding. I shall
always look back with pleasure to these quiet weeks spent under your
father's roof. They have given me the only chance I have had in years
for undisturbed writing on the History that will stand for my life
work. I must confess that I dread my return home. The noise and
confusion, the constant invasion of my privacy, the demands upon my
time, appal me. Very few realize the magnitude of my work, and the
necessity it lays upon me for isolating myself. You have been
singularly sympathetic and helpful in that respect."
"But think what your being here has meant to me! You came into my life
just when everything else seemed to drop out. You explained things to
me, and gave me something to do. You can't begin to know how you have
helped me."
"I have only tried to direct and suggest," the Doctor said; "in short
to take the place--"
"Of a father," finished Miss Lady enthusiastically.
The Doctor tapped his foot impatiently. After all her father was a
much older man than he: the distance, at that moment, between forty
and sixty seemed infinitely greater than that between forty and
twenty.
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