As a doctor he probably recognized that it would be absurd to be unco-operative and delay his own return to health; but as a man in his early thirties, with all sorts of things that he would almost certainly have preferred to do rather than lie in a long chair with an adjustable footrest and a cushion stuffed in at the right angle behind his sleek dark head, he was, Josie considered, remarkably patient. And in spite of his mother’s fears of serious brooding, he spent many hours in the library browsing over the contents of its shelves with the lovely young woman in the beaten silver frame sitting almost at his elbow on the roll-topped desk.He had but to turn his head to meet those breathtaking Irish eyes and that smile that should have been the very thing to retard his convalescence, but so far Josie had never caught him doing so. She was a little surprised that the photograph remained where it was, but decided that this was too delicate a matter to be dealt with even by Mrs. Duveen, and that unless Michael himself desired the picture’s removal, it would remain where it was.
