Now that Maddy was away, Guy missed her terribly, wondering how he had ever lived without her, and sometimes working himself into a violent passion against the meddlesome neighbors who would not let her remain with him in peace, and who, now that she was gone, did not stop their talk one whit, for the people marveled more than ever, feeling confident now that he was educating his own wife, and making sundry spiteful remarks as to what he intended doing with her relations. Guy only knew that he was very lonely, that Lucy’s letters seemed insipid, that even the doctor failed to interest him, as of old, and that his greatest comfort was in looking at the bright young face which seemed to smile so trustfully upon him, just as Maddy had smiled upon him when, in Madam ——’s parlor, he bade her good-bye. The doctor could not have that picture, he finally decided. “Hal ought to be satisfied with getting Maddy, as of course he will, for am I not educating her for that very purpose?” he said to himself; and, as a kind of atonement for what he deemed treachery to his friend, he talked with him often of her, always taking it for granted that when she was old enough, the doctor would woo and win the little girl who had come to him in his capacity of Inspector, as candidate No. 1. At first the doctor suspected him of acting a part in order to cover up some design of his own with regard to Maddy, and affected an indifference he did not feel; but, as time passed on, Guy, who really believed himself sincere, managed to make the doctor believe so too. Consequently, the latter abandoned his suspicions, and gave himself up to blissful dreams of what might possibly be when Maddy should have become the brilliant woman she was sure one to be. CHAPTER XV. THE HOLIDAYS. The summer vacation had been spent by the Remingtons and Maddy at the seaside, the latter coming to the cottage for a week before returning to her school in New York; and as the doctor was then absent from home, she did not meet him at all. Consequently he had not seen her since she left Aikenside for New York. But she was at home now for the Christmas holidays—was down at the cottage, too; and, unusually nervous for him, the doctor stood before the little square glass in his back office, trying to make himself look as well as possible, for he was going that afternoon to call upon Miss Clyde. He was glad she was not at Aikenside; he would rather meet her at the cottage, and he hoped he might be fortunate enough to find her alone.