"To-morrow, then?" "Rather too soon that, is it not? Who is to read the next story?" "Why, you, of course," answered his brother. "I am at your service," rejoined Mr. Armstrong. "But to-morrow!" "Don't you think, Ralph," said his wife, "you could read better if you followed your usual custom of dining early?" "I am sure I should, Lizzie. Don't you think, Colonel Cathcart, it would be better to come in the evening, just after your dinner? I like to dine early, and I am a great tea-drinker. If we might have a huge tea-kettle on the fire, and tea-pot to correspond on the table, and I, as I read my story, and the rest of the company, as they listen, might help ourselves, I think it would be very jolly, and very homely." To this the colonel readily agreed. I heard the ladies whispering a little, and the words--"Very considerate indeed!" from Mrs. Bloomfield, reached my ears. Indeed I had thought that the colonel's hospitality was making him forget his servants. And I could not help laughing to think what Beeves's face would have been like, if he had heard us all invited to dinner again, the next day. Whether Adela suspected us now, I do not know. She said nothing to show it. Just before the doctor left, with his brother and sister, he went up to her, and said, in a by-the-bye sort of way: "I am sorry to hear that you have not been quite well of late, Miss Cathcart. You have been catching cold, I am afraid. Let me feel your pulse." She gave him her wrist directly, saying: "I feel much better to-night, thank you." He stood--listening to the pulse, you would have said--his whole attitude was so entirely that of one listening, with his eyes doing nothing at all. He stood thus for a while, without consulting his watch, looking as if the pulse had brought him into immediate communication with the troubled heart itself, and he could feel every flutter and effort which it made. Then he took out his watch and counted. Now that his eyes were quite safe, I saw Adela's eyes steal up to his face, and rest there for a half a minute with a reposeful expression. I felt that there was something healing in the very presence and touch of the man--so full was he of health and humanity; and I thought Adela felt that he was a good man, and one to be trusted in. He gave her back her hand, as it were, so gently did he let it go, and said: "I will send you something as soon as I get home, to take at once. I presume you will go to bed soon?" "I will, if you think it best." And so Mr. Henry Armstrong was, without more ado, tacitly installed as physician to Miss Adela Cathcart; and she seemed quite content with the new arrangement. Chapter VI. The bell. Before the next meeting took place, namely, after breakfast on the following morning, Percy having gone to visit the dogs, Mrs. Cathcart addressed me: "I had something to say to my brother, Mr. Smith, but--" "And you wish to be alone with him? With all my heart," I said.