"Oh, dear me!" she said pettishly, "it's very dreadful. Women always were at the bottom of all the mischief in the world. I've suspected it; Neil has been so changed, and so has Alison. It seems monstrous, but as sure as I'm a living woman she has managed to attract them both, and it must be stopped or do one knows what mischief will happen. Why, those two might quarrel dreadfully, and then-Oh, dear me, I'm very glad Saxa and Dana are coming. They will be the real cure for the trouble after all." She took up her pen again, but only to throw it back on to the silver tray. "No; I mustn't write. Stop, I know; I'll go in and sit with Ralph this afternoon, and quietly work round to the point of the nurse leaving now. Isabel and I could do everything he requires." "No," she cried, with her face full of perplexity, "he would only fly in a passion and abuse me for interfering, and insist upon keeping her twice as long, and if I told him what I thought about Neil and Alison it would enrage him so that he would have some terrible relapse. Oh, dear me! I don't know what Nature could have been about to make a nurse with a face and a soft, cooing voice like that woman's. Bless me!" she cried aloud. "Neil, you shouldn't make me jump like that." "Didn't you hear me come in, Aunt?" "No, my dear, and I am so nervous. It came on when your father had his accident." "Oh, that will soon go off. I've just had a message from Sir Denton." "To say that we need not keep the nurse any longer, and that he wants her back at the hospital?" "No, Aunt, dear, in response to a letter of mine written days ago," said Neil, looking at her curiously. "What about, then?" "To say that he is on his way down here to see my father again, and give me his opinion about the progress made." "But, Neil, my dear, you should not ask people like that. The Lydon girls are coming, and I cannot ask one of them to give up her room, and I'm sure Sir Denton wouldn't like mine, looking out toward the stables, though you can't see them." "Don't trouble yourself, Aunt, dear. He will not stay. He will come down by one train, spend an hour here, and go back to town at once. I want his indorsement of my ideas respecting a change of treatment." "Oh, if that is the case, then I need not worry." "Not in the least, Aunt. Only see that the lunch is kept back." "Of course, my dear. I am relieved. For it would have been awkward with those girls here." "They are coming, then?" said Neil absently. "Why, you know they are coming, dear. Really, Neil, I shall be very glad when you are married-- and Alison, too, if it comes to that." Neil looked at her searchingly, but his aunt's face was perfectly calm-- placid to a degree--though all the while she was congratulating herself upon the subtlety and depth of her nature in introducing the subject so cleverly. "And why, pray?" he said coldly.