“I don’t know what’s come to Frank. I think he hates this place now. He’s full of the election, I suppose.” “Oh, yes; he told me to say he should be over here soon. Of course there’ll be no contest, so he need not trouble himself.” “Happy dog, isn’t he, doctor? to have it all before him instead of behind him. Well, well; he’s as good a lad as ever lived,—as ever lived. And let me see; Mary’s time—” And then there were a few very important words spoken on that subject. “I’ll just step up to Lady Arabella now,” said the doctor. “She’s as fretful as possible,” said the squire. “I’ve just left her.” “Nothing special the matter, I hope?” “No, I think not; nothing in your way, that is; only specially cross, which always comes in my way. You’ll stop and dine to-day, of course?” “Not to-day, squire.” “Nonsense; you will. I have been quite counting on you. I have a particular reason for wanting to have you to-day,—a most particular reason.” But the squire always had his particular reasons. “I’m very sorry, but it is impossible to-day. I shall have a letter to write that I must sit down to seriously. Shall I see you when I come down from her ladyship?” The squire turned away sulkily, almost without answering him, for he now had no prospect of any alleviation to the tedium of the evening; and the doctor went up-stairs to his patient. For Lady Arabella, though it cannot be said that she was ill, was always a patient. It must not be supposed that she kept her bed and swallowed daily doses, or was prevented from taking her share in such prosy gaieties as came from time to time in the way of her prosy life; but it suited her turn of mind to be an invalid and to have a doctor; and as the doctor whom her good fates had placed at her elbow thoroughly understood her case, no great harm was done. “It frets me dreadfully that I cannot get to see Mary,” Lady Arabella said, as soon as the first ordinary question as to her ailments had been asked and answered. “She’s quite well and will be over to see you before long.” “Now I beg that she won’t. She never thinks of coming when there can be no possible objection, and travelling, at the present moment, would be—” Whereupon the Lady Arabella shook her head very gravely. “Only think of the importance of it, doctor,” she said. “Remember the enormous stake there is to be considered.” “It would not do her a ha’porth of harm if the stake were twice as large.” “Nonsense, doctor, don’t tell me; as if I didn’t know myself. I was very much against her going to London this spring, but of course what I said was overruled. It always is. I do believe Mr. Gresham went over to Boxall Hill, on purpose to induce her to go. But what does he care? He’s fond of Frank; but he never thinks of looking beyond the present day. He never did, as you know well enough, doctor.” “The trip did her all the good in the world,” said Dr. Thorne, preferring anything to a conversation respecting the squire’s sins.