'No, that I can't, Nannie; I promised Dobbs to go and see a man for him, and I must come back as soon as I can after that.' He looked--as to figure and air--much more like his old self when he had changed his coat. They fed him, almost against his will, with a few of the forced strawberries Nuttie had brought. Billy pressed on him wonders from a Paris bonbon box, and Annaple fastened a rose and a pink in his button-hole, and came down to the street door with her boy to see him off. 'What do you think of her?' was Mark's first inquiry. 'Think! As Mr. Dutton said long ago, never was braver lady!' 'Never was there a truer word! I meant as to her health? As to courage, spirits, and temper, there is no question; I never saw them fail; but are they not almost too much for the frame?' he asked anxiously. It echoed Nuttie's fear, but she tried to frame a cheerful answer. 'She is very thin, but she seems well.' 'She never complains, but I am sure her strength is not what it was. She cannot walk out as she did at first. Indeed, she gets no real rest day nor night, and there's no relieving her!' 'She says you don't get much rest either.' 'More than my share,' said Mark. 'The poor little thing never sleeps except in someone's arms, and if awake, is not content for a moment except in her mother's.' 'And that has been going on four months?' 'Three. Ever since we brought her back from Redcastle. I have nearly determined to move into some suburb when I get a rise at Michaelmas, unless she improves.' 'Nurse might suggest something.' 'Or at any rate tell us what to think. We showed her to a doctor, and all he could propose was some kind of food, which was no more successful than the rest. Did you look at her, Nuttie? She is a pretty little thing when she is quiet, but she dwindles away--at least so it seems to me, though Annaple will not see it, and--and if we are not permitted to keep the little one, I dread what the effect may be on her.' Nuttie said something about bravery and goodness, thinking in her heart that, if the blow fell, it would be better for all than the perpetual suffering of the poor little sickly being. 'Ah! you don't know what her affections are,' said Mark. 'You did not see her when she lost her mother, and there had been no strain on her powers then. However, I've no business to croak. Many a child gets over troubles of this kind, and, as Annaple says, little Jenny will be all the more to us for what we go through with her.' The carriage stopped, and Nuttie asked him if it would delay him too long if she executed a commission about her father's glasses. He had plenty of time, but she was delayed longer than she expected, and on her return was surprised to find that he had dropped asleep. 'Ah! that's what comes of a moment's quiet;' he said, smiling. 'Fine quiet in the roar of Ludgate Hill!'