She thought of a score of trivialities it might be about; but the letter was still unopened when David Gemmell called to talk over some cases in which he required her counsel.

He found her sitting listlessly, something in her lap which she at once concealed.

She failed to follow his arguments, and he went away puckering his brows, some of the old doctor's sayings about her ringing loud in his ears.
One of them was: "Things will be far wrong with Grizel when she is able to sit idle with her hands in her lap." Another: "She is almost pitifully straightforward, man.

Everything that is in Grizel must out.

She can hide nothing." Yet how cunningly she had concealed what was in her hands.