Her mama was somewhere in there, in that great height and depth of stone, behind those rows of windows gleaming cold. She extracted some papers from the false bottom of the Gladstone bag and walked up to the entrance. “I’M DR PETERS. We have had no notice of a visit,” the doctor said. He was a smartly-dressed man with a confident moustache, at odds with eyes like an anxious spaniel’s. “And the Physician-Superintendent is not here today.” “A visit without notice was considered the best way of keeping this unfortunate situation out of the public eye,” Eveline said. “You do understand that the family would prefer that the Lunacy Commissioners did not become involved, let alone...” – she leaned close and muttered – “the Press.” “The Press! But we have... there have been so many reforms in the last years, the place is quite different, and the situation of the patients altogether improved.” “So I understand. But if it were to come to light that either of the doctors who signed her committal papers were involved in any other cases where there might have been a monetary advantage...”
