Who could this favoured male visitor possibly be?
Almost as soon as I asked myself the question, the answer occurred to me.

Who COULD it be but the doctor?
In the case of any other visitor, I should have allowed myself to be discovered in the drawing-room.

There would have been nothing out of the common in my having got tired of the library, and having gone upstairs for a change.

But my own self-respect stood in the way of my meeting the person who had insulted me by sending me back my books.

I slipped into the little third room, which I have mentioned as communicating with the back drawing-room, and dropped the curtains which closed the open doorway.