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fireplace, where a log fire crackled cheerily. A matching chair faced the sofa across a small table holding the coffee service.
    “A most interesting young man,” he said in response to her inquiring look, as he sat down beside her. “You were right to bring him to my attention.”
    “Will he be all right?” she asked, clearly still worried. “Adam, what’s wrong with him? Do you know?”
    Adam patted her hand and smiled reassuringly. “On such a short contact, I can only make an educated guess, but I believe I’ve given him something to think about. Let’s just wait and see, shall we?”
    Peregrine seemed uneasy and rigidly self-contained when he joined them a few minutes later, though the monochromatic grey now was broken by a smart navy blazer with shiny gold buttons. He accepted a cup of coffee from Lady Laura and sat down across from her, but he declined anything to eat. Reassured by a look from Adam, Lady Laura smoothly took command of further conversation, embarking on a series of comic anecdotes revolving around some of the more eccentric characters represented in the family portrait gallery. Presently Adam set aside his cup and saucer and consulted a handsome silver pocket watch.
    “Ah, do forgive me, Laura, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to run,” he said, slipping the watch back into a vest pocket. “I’m expected on rounds in half an hour, and goodness knows what new flights of speculation will lure our fine student-doctors off in all directions, if I’m not there to supervise. Sometimes I wish that psychiatry was a more exact science.”
    “You’re forgiven, my dear,” Laura said, smiling. “Far be it from me to monopolize your time at the expense of your duty.”
    Adam stood up smoothly. “The temptation to linger,” he said with a laugh, “is by no means inconsiderable. Thank you very much for the coffee. If I may, I’ll try to call round again on Wednesday.”
    “You know you’re welcome any time,” she replied, turning her cheek for his kiss. “Thank you for coming, Adam.”
    “The pleasure was all mine, dear lady.”
    He turned to Peregrine, sitting withdrawn and silent on the other side of the little table.
    “And Mr. Lovat,” he continued, “I’m very happy to have made your acquaintance.” Then he reached into the inside breast pocket of his coat for a monogrammed card case.
    “Here’s my card,” he told Peregrine, handing one across,
    “Please feel free to call upon me in the near future. After what I’ve seen today, I should like very much to discuss the possibility of your painting my portrait.”

Chapter Three

    THE NEXT t wo days passed without hearing anything from Peregrine Lovat. On Wednesday afternoon, Adam returned to Kintoul House for his promised visit. To his surprise, Peregrine Lovat was not there. After satisfying himself that Lady Laura was in good spirits and reasonably comfortable, Adam inquired after the young man.
    “I can’t really say, Adam,” she said, sipping tea with him in the morning room. “He didn’t show up yesterday; and then he rang me this morning to say that something had come up with an agent from some gallery in London. If I didn’t know better, I would accuse you of having frightened him away.”
    “Well, he’s certainly frightened,” Adam agreed soberly. “Unfortunately, there isn’t a great deal I can do to help him until he becomes more afraid of himself than he is of me.”
    He turned the conversation to other subjects after that, for he did not want to reveal the reasons for his interest in Peregrine Lovat—not to Lady Laura Kintoul, whose impending death Peregrine had seen. After chatting for nearly an hour, and exacting her promise to call if she should feel the need of him either as a physician or a friend, he took affectionate leave of her.
    In the normal course of things, Adam would have called in to Lady Laura again on Friday, but on Thursday a bleak autumnal tempest swept in_ off the North Sea,