'Rome was not built in a day,' he responded, cheerily; 'and people who indulge in fainting fits cannot expect to feel like Hercules. Who would have thought that such an inexorable nurse as Miss Lambert should prove such a fractious invalid?' and there was a tone of reproof under the light raillery. 'I do not mean to be impatient,' she answered, sighing; 'but I am so weary of this room and my own thoughts, and then there are my poor people.' 'Don't trouble your head about them; they will do very well without you,' with pretended roughness. She shook her head. 'You are wrong; they miss me dreadfully; Olive has brought me several messages from them already.' 'Then Olive ought to be ashamed of herself, and shall be deposed from her office of nurse, and Polly shall reign in her stead.' But Mildred was too much depressed and in earnest to heed his banter. 'There is poor Rachel Sowerby up at Stenkrith; her mother has been down this morning to say that she cannot last very much longer.' 'I am just going up to see her now. I fear it is only a question of days,' he replied, gravely. Mildred clasped her hands with an involuntary movement of pain. 'Rachel is very dear to me; she is the model girl and the favourite of the whole school, and her mother says she is pining to see me. Oh, Dr. Heriot--' but here she stopped. 'Well,' he returned, encouragingly; and for the second time he noticed the exceeding beauty of Mildred's eyes, as she fixed them softly and beseechingly on his face. 'Do you think it would hurt me to go that little distance, just to see Rachel?' 'What, in this bitter wind!' he remonstrated. 'Wait until to-morrow, and I will drive you over.' 'There may be no to-morrows for Rachel,' she returned, with gentle persistence. 'I am afraid I shall fret sadly if I do not see her again; she was my best Sunday scholar. The wind will not hurt me; if you knew how I long to be out in it; just before you came in I was wishing I were on the top of one of those fells, feeling it sweep over me.' 'Ministers of grace defend me from the soft pleading of a woman's tongue!' exclaimed Dr. Heriot, impatiently, but he laughed too; 'you are a most troublesome patient, Miss Lambert; but I suppose you must have your way; but you must take the consequences of your own wilfulness.' Mildred quietly seated herself. 'No, I am not wilful; I have no wish to disobey you,' she returned, in a low voice. He drew near and questioned her face; evidently it dissatisfied him. 'If I do not let you go, you will only worry yourself the whole day, and your lungs are sound enough,' he continued, brusquely; but Mildred's strange unreasonableness tried him. 'Wrap yourself up well. Polly is going with me, but there is plenty of room for both. I will pay my visit, and leave you with Rachel for an hour, while I get rid of some of my other patients.'