"Now, Henry, I do declare that you are insufferable!" cried Mrs Doctor, angrily, as her brother rose softly, walked to the window of the pretty palm-thatched bungalow, and stood gazing out at the bright flowers with which the doctor had surrounded his place. "Well, it's true enough," chuckled the doctor. "I never saw such a girl in my life. She has had that great fellow Chumbley hanging after her for weeks, and now--" "And now what, sir?" Perhaps it was the wind, but certainly just then there was a sound as of a faint sigh from somewhere by the window, and it seemed as if the chaplain was recalling the past days of repose at his little home near Mayleyfield, and wondering whether he had done right to come; but no one heeded him, and the doctor went on: "Now she seems to have lassoed young Hilton." "What, Captain Hilton?" "Yes, my dear, with a silken lasso; and he is all devotion." "Henry, you astound me!" cried Mrs Doctor. "Why, I thought that Mr Harley meant something there." "So did I," said the doctor, "but it seems all off. Harley and Chumbley cashiered, _vice_ Hilton--the reigning hero of the day." "Of the day indeed!" exclaimed Mrs Doctor. "I never did see such a girl. It is dreadful." "And yet you scolded me for calling her a dangerous creature." "Well, I must own that she is, Henry," said Mrs Doctor; and once more there was a faint sigh by the window. "She's a regular man-trap, my dear, and practises with her eyes upon everyone she sees. I don't think even her great-grandfather would be safe. She actually smiled at me yesterday." "What?" cried the little lady. "Perowne sent for me, you know." "Yes, of course, I remember. Go on, Henry." "They'd been out together--she wanted to see the Residency island--and then nothing would do but she must have a walk in the jungle; and then, I don't know whether she began making eyes at the leeches, but half a dozen fastened upon her, of course." "Why, of course, sir?" "Because she went out walking in ridiculous high-heeled low shoes, with fancy stockings." "Well, Henry, how tiresomely prolix you are!" "Well, that's all, my dear, only that the leeches fastened on her feet and ankles." "And did Mr Perowne send for you to take them off?" "Well, not exactly, my dear, they pulled them off themselves; but one bite would not stop bleeding, and I had to apply a little pad on the instep--wonderfully pretty little ankles and insteps, my dear, when the stockings are off." "Doctor Bolter!" exclaimed the little lady in so severe a tone of voice that the subject of Helen Perowne was dismissed, and the culprit allowed to go to his little surgery to see to the compounding of some medicines necessary for his sick. VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. DOCTOR BOLTER'S THEORY.