"It is of no use for you to put on that injured expression, Henry, because I know; and mind this, I don't accuse you of trying to poison me, but of trying experiments with new-fangled drugs, and I tell you I won't have it." The doctor protested his innocence, but the lady was not convinced; and apparently under the impression that it would be as well to submit, he allowed her to go on till she reached the top of her bent, when she suddenly changed the topic. "Ah, there was something else I wanted to say to you," she said sharply. "How about Helen Perowne?" This was too much for the doctor's equanimity, and he gave the table a bang with his fist. "I declare it's too bad," he exclaimed, wrathfully now. He had submitted to all that had been said before with a few protestations and shrugs of the shoulders, but now he fired up. "I have never hardly said a civil word to the girl in my life, for I protest that I utterly detest the handsome, heartless, coquettish creature. Of all the unjust women I ever met, Mary, you are about the worst." A casual observer would have set Mrs Doctor Bolter down as an extremely prejudiced, suspicious woman of a highly-jealous temperament; but then a casual observer would not have known her real nature. If he had seen her now, as she sank back in her chair, and the pleasant dimples and puckers came into her face, he would have understood much better how it was that the doctor had persuaded her to leave her maiden state to come and share his lot. For as the doctor turned redder in the face and then purple, she smiled and shook a little round white finger at him. "A guilty conscience needs no accuser," she said. "I never accused you, sir, of flirting with Helen Perowne; but as soon as I mentioned her name you began to defend yourself." "I don't care," cried the doctor, "I confess I have said complimentary and pleasant things to all the ladies of the station, both old and young; not that they think anything of it, for I'm only the doctor; while as to Helen Perowne, last time her father asked me to see and prescribe for her, and she began to make eyes at me, and put forth her blandishments--" "Oh, you confess that, sir?" "Confess it?" cried the doctor, stoutly. "Why she does that to every man she sees! I believe if her father took her to Madame Tussaud's--You remember my taking you to Madame Tussaud's, my dear?" "Oh, yes, I remember," said Mrs Bolter. "Well, I honestly believe that if she were taken there she'd begin making eyes at the wax figures." "Indeed!" said Mrs Bolter, stiffly. "And so she began to make eyes at you!" "That she did, the jade," said the doctor, chuckling, "and--and--ha, ha, ha--ho, ho, ho! don't--ha, ha, ha!--say a word about it, my dear--there was nothing the matter with her but young girl's whimsical fancies; and she made me so cross with her fads and languishing airs, and then by making such a dead set at me, that I--ha, ha, ha--ho, ho, ho--"