The doctor bethought him that he had come over to Havre especially to try and get Susan home, and separate her from Markworth. Why on earth should he take her back now to the place where she would still be with him? Here she was unconscious, and he was her proper guardian appointed by her father. He would--"Yes, I will, I'll be damned if I don't!" he said, to himself; "take her back to England on my own account, without asking anybody's leave or license!" And the doctor carried his determination into effect between that night and the next day. The _fiacre_ arriving opportunely, the doctor hailed it; and lifting Susan in, gave the driver the card of his hotel, "The Queen of Savoy," which he had kept so carefully in his waistcoat pocket for such an emergency as losing his way: he and his charge--now more recovered--were presently set down at that famous hostelry, where the doctor had Susan at once put to bed, guarding her all the while with jealous watchfulness: he was afraid Markworth might step in at the last moment to claim her, and that his trouble would be thrown away. In the morning--Susan being still nearly unconscious--he had her carried on board the early packet for England; and the same evening the doctor, to his intense satisfaction, had her on English ground. At Southampton, Susan was unfortunately taken very ill; and Doctor Jolly could not carry out his intention of removing her at once to his own house as he had intended. The shock, the fall, the mental anxieties she had suffered, brought on an attack of brain fever; and Susan was for days struggling between life and death. When she was out of danger, the doctor, leaving her in the care of a trustworthy nurse, went home to see about his practice--which he thought must be at sixes and sevens from his prolonged absence--and to make preparations for Susan's return to The Poplars. When he got to Bigton, however, the doctor heard of the alarming illness of the old dowager, and his plans became upset. He went off at once to Hartwood village, and found the old lady unconscious, although the respectable Dobbins, his _locum tenens_ had treated her, the doctor allowed, as well as he could have done himself under the sudden paralytic shock she had sustained. Doctor Jolly had consequently to neglect Susan for a few days, in order to attend to her mother; and when he did go back for her, he determined that he would not bring her home to The Poplars--where everything would remind her of her former life--but would take her to his own house at Bigton. Here, accordingly, Susan was removed as soon as she was able to travel from Southampton; and here the good old Deb, the doctor's sister, nursed the girl back to life, and to a knowledge of the past and present, with more than a mother's care, tenderly aided by the doctor himself.