Had he done so, he would have been startled and distressed, for he had already, with a shrewd medical man's judgment, "sized up" his fellow guest, and found him very much wanting.
Thus not knowing or divining anything of the various human under-currents, save, perhaps, that he guessed Donnington to be in love with Bubbles, Dr.Panton went off to bed in a very cheerful and contented state of mind.

So contented was he that as, with leisurely fingers, he lit the candles on his dressing-table, he incidentally told himself that Wyndfell Hall was the only house in which he had ever stayed which, lacking any other luminant but lamps and candles, yet had amply enough of both! Lighting a pipe--for he didn't feel in the least sleepy--he drew forward a deep, comfortable armchair close to the fire, and took up a book.

But soon he put it down again, and, staring at the dancing flames, his mind dwelt with retrospective pleasure on the last few hours.
Seated between Helen Brabazon and Bubbles Dunster, he had thoroughly enjoyed the delicious New Year's Eve dinner composed by Varick's _chef_.
Miss Brabazon had admitted to having a headache this evening, and she certainly looked very far from well--less well than he had thought her to be when they had first seen one another again, after so long an absence, this afternoon.
And yet, as is sometimes the case, a look of languor suited her; and he thought she had grown decidedly better-looking in the last year.

At Redsands Miss Brabazon had been a little too buxom, a little too self-possessed, also, for his taste.

And yet--and yet how wonderfully good she had been to poor Mrs.Varick! With what tender patience had she put up with the invalid's querulous bad temper, never even mentioning it to him, the doctor, who so often received painful confidences of the kind from those who were far nearer and dearer to a dying patient than Helen had been to querulous Milly Varick.
As for Miss Bubbles, he felt it would be easy to lose one's heart to that strange, queer young creature.