"I do not see how I could do that very well, as I have engaged to go over and see these people in Sir William Hunter's almshouses, that I am to have the charge of. No; I think my best way will be this. I will write fully to my parents first. I will do that this afternoon. Then, considering that I have said I shall stay here, and that the house is going to be got ready for me,--and considering how hard it is upon the ladies and gentlemen here to have nobody to attend them but a person they do not like,--and considering, too, that I cannot tell for myself what Mr Hope really is, while people differ so about him, I think I had better wait here (just as I should have done if you had not told me all this) till Mrs Rowland, and you, and Sir William Hunter, and everybody, have settled whether Mr Hope is really a good man or not: and then, you know, I can go away, after all, if I please." Philip thought that Dr Levitt must have been preaching to his new parishioner to join the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove. Mr Walcot himself seemed quietly satisfied with his own decision, for he adhered to it, repeating it in answer to every appeal that Philip could devise. "I think it right to warn you," said Philip, "that if the prospect of being my mother's medical attendant has been part of your inducement to settle here, you have been misled in relying on it. My mother is much attached to Mr Hope and his family; she prefers him to every other medical attendant; and I shall take care that she has her own way in this particular." "While I am in Mrs Rowland's house, I shall, of course, attend Mrs Rowland's family," replied Mr Walcot. "Her children, if she pleases; but not necessarily her mother." "Yes; her mother too, as I dare say you will see." "You will allow Mrs Enderby to choose her own medical attendant, I presume?" "Oh, yes: and I have no doubt she will choose me. Mrs Rowland says so." "Here comes a gentleman with whom I want to speak," said Philip, seeing Mr Grey approaching from a distance. "He is as warm a friend and admirer of Mr Hope as I am; and--" "Mr Hope married into his family,--did not he?" "Yes; but Mr Grey and Mr Hope were friends long before either of them was acquainted with Mrs Hope. The friendship between the gentlemen was more likely to have caused the marriage than the marriage the friendship." "Ah! that does happen sometimes, I know." "What I was going to say is this, Mr Walcot, that Mr Hope's friends have determined to see justice done him; and that if, in the prosecution of this design, you should imagine that you are remarkably coolly treated,--by myself, for instance,--you must remember that I fairly warned you from the beginning that I shall give no countenance to any one who comes knowingly to establish himself on the ruins of a traduced man's reputation. You will remember this, Mr Walcot."