"By Gad, madam! it's positively wonderful. What an improvement; couldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it! But where has she gone to now--who's that thrumming the old organ?" "That must be Mr Markworth, I believe," she answered, "and you must compliment him on Susan's improvement: she's always with him, and he seems quite devoted to her. It is really quite charming to see them together." Who would have dreamt of their joint conspiracy from the way she spoke? "Really?" enquired our Aesculapius. "To tell you the truth, madam, I don't like that fellow at all. I'm never deceived in a face; and, if I do not make a mistake, madam, that man is a scoundrel as certain as God made little apples." I do not know why it was, but the doctor always seemed desirous of connecting the name of the deity with miniature specimens of the forbidden fruit whenever he wanted to qualify a strong assertion. "Dear me, doctor!" interposed the lady, "your language is very strong." "Not a bit of it, madam; not a bit more than he deserves. By Gad, madam! he must have some object to gain; he would not take all that trouble for nothing. I know human nature, madam, and he is either going to marry the old lady, or something else. Ho! ho! ho! what a fine pair they would make!" And the doctor sniggered over his own joke, and laughed so contagiously that Miss Kingscott could not but follow suit. The doctor presently, however, returned to business. He had been thinking of this young lady all the way over from Bigton. He had asserted to himself over and over again that she was "a dooced fine girl," as if some one else had been disputing the point with him; and now that he was in her presence she not only looked finer and more beautiful than ever, but he had one of the best opportunities for speaking to her alone he had ever had before, or could have wished for. She looked very refined and ladylike as she stood there in the shaded dining-room, clad in a light morning dress. Her regular features and pale complexion gave an air of dignified beauty to her face which her height and figure well carried out. Altogether she was very charming, and looked so loveable on the present occasion, in appearance, that she would have captivated a man even less in love than the doctor, and led him on to the inevitable "pop!" Aesculapius was a long time beating about the bush. Although he was generally free and easy in his speech, the doctor was now tongue-tied when he most wanted to speak, and his already ruddy face was more "peonified" than ever--if I may be allowed to coin that word--while his heart thumped against his ribs "like a pestle against the sides of a pill mortar," as he expressed it professionally. "Ha! hum! a fine morning, madam--a fine morning! Don't you think so?"