This evening, for instance, by lowering her blind to the foot of the second pane from the top, Miss Marty had telegraphed,-- "The Major requests you to call and take wine with him." The Doctor drew his blind down rapidly and as rapidly raised it again.

This said, "I come at once," and Miss Marty knew that it added, "On the wings of love!" A slight agitation of the lower left-hand corner of her blind supplemented the message thus,-- "There will be brown sherry." "Then will I also call to-morrow," said the Doctor's blind, roguishly, meaning that if the Major indulged in brown sherry (which never agreed with him) this convivial visit would almost certainly be followed by a professional one.

Miss Marty, having no signal for the green-sealed Madeira, postponed explanation, and drew her blind midway down the window.

The Doctor did the same with his.
This signal and its answer invariably closed their correspondence; but what it meant, what tender message it conveyed, remained an uncommunicated secret.

By it Miss Marty--but shall I reveal the arcana of that virgin breast?
Let us be content to know that whatever it conveyed was, on her part, womanly; on his, gallant and even dashing.
The Doctor lost no time in fetching his hat and gold-topped cane.
He knew the Major's brown sherry; it had twice made a voyage to the West Indies.