"What a wicked wretch!" chuckled the little doctor. "Has he taken a fancy to a pretty girl, then, and made up his mind to win? Why, he's as bad as that scoundrel Harry Bolter, who wouldn't take _no_ for an answer, and did not." "Now, don't talk nonsense, Henry. This is too serious a subject for joking." "I am as serious as a judge, Polly." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "What!" "Is there anything the matter, my dear?" said the little doctor, who was startled by the lady's energy. "What did you call me, sir?" "Polly, my dear; tender pet name for Mary." "Never again please, dear Henry," said the little lady. "I don't wish to be too particular, and don't mind tenderness--I--I--rather like it, dear. But do I look like a lady who could be called Polly?" "Then it shall always be Mary, my dear," said the doctor; "and I won't joke about serious matters. As to Neil Harley and Helen Perowne, you're quite right; but 'pon my word, I don't see why we should interfere as long as matters don't go too far." "I do not agree with you, Henry." "You have not heard my argument, my dear," he said taking her hand, drawing it through his arm, and walking her up and down the deck. "Now look here, my dear Mary, six months ago you were a miserable unbeliever." "A what?" cried the lady, indignantly. "A miserable unbeliever. You had no faith in its being the duty of all ladies to get married; and I came to your barbarous little village and converted you." "Oh, yes, I had great belief," said the little lady, quietly. "Well, then, you were waiting for the missionary to come and lead your belief the right way. Now then, my dear, don't you see this? Suppose a place where there are a dozen ladies and only one gentleman. How many can be married?" "Why, only one lady, of course," said Mrs Doctor. "Exactly, my dear," said the doctor; "but it is a moral certainty that the gentleman will be married." "Well, yes, I suppose so," replied Mrs Doctor. "Suppose so? Why, they'd combine and kill him for an unnatural monster if he did not marry one of them," said the doctor, laughing. "Well, then, my dear, suppose we reverse the case, and take a young and very handsome lady to a station in an out-of-the-way part of the world, where the proportions are as one to twenty--one lady to twenty gentlemen--what is the moral result?" "I suppose she would be sure to be married?" "Exactly, my dear. Well, as our handsome young charge evidently thinks a very great deal about love-making--" "A very great deal too much," said Mrs Doctor, tartly. "Exactly so, my dear. Well, she is going to such a place. What ought we to do?" "See of course that she does not make a foolish match." "Ex--actly!" cried the doctor. "Well, Harley seems to have taken a fancy to her at once. Good man--good position--not too old." "I don't know," said the lady, dubiously, "I don't quite think they would match."