Dr. Wainwright, who was perfectly satisfied of Annette's convalescence, was a little curious as to how she would receive him, and on his part assumed a friendly, almost paternal, manner in which there was no trace of his old relation of physician. But Annette, seizing an opportunity of speaking to him alone, referred openly to her former malady, and in the warmest terms thanked him for all his solicitude and care. Her ready frankness conveyed to the Doctor the last best assurance of her complete recovery, and he met her expressions of gratitude with prompt kindness. He left his former patient on this first occasion of their meeting with an earnest wish for the success of his son in the suit he had no doubt George would immediately urge. "If the case had been any other," Dr. Wainwright thought, as he made his way out of the house without seeing either Captain or Mrs. Derinzy, "I might not feel so disinterestedly pleased that another has succeeded where I have for some time despaired of success, but I cannot grudge Hildebrand his triumph, when it is to secure George's happiness, as I do believe it will, for this girl is a fine creature." Dr. Wainwright had stipulated, in writing to his son, that he was not to see Annette until after he had had an opportunity of forming his own judgment upon her state; and he had accepted it as understood, that if the cure were not complete, George would not ask Annette to marry him. When he had made his visit to her, with the results already recorded, he wrote to George, who had arrived in England that morning, in the following terms, characteristic of the writer, and eminently satisfactory to the recipient: "MY DEAR GEORGE,--I have seen Miss Derinzy. Hildebrand has kept his promise, and beaten me, to our mutual satisfaction. Go and visit her as soon as you please, and you have _my_ consent, if you can gain the lady's, to turn my patient into my daughter, as soon as you like.--Yours ever, G.W." "That's glorious!" said Paul, who had gone home with George on their arrival. "I am as glad for her sake as for yours, and for yours as for hers, and I can't say fairer than that, can I? Annette is a dear girl, and I am quite sure she likes you. I know something of the symptoms, George, my boy! The governor and my mother will be furious, of course, and I should not wonder if they declare your father and you are in a conspiracy against them for your own purposes. However, if they proclaim such a plot as that, they must include me in it. I say, George, suppose Annette and I did a bit of the old romance business, and solemnly repudiated each other; 'unalterably never yours,' and that kind of thing, you know?"