"I don't know, dear," he said, smiling. "I loved here in England very desperately, and when the lady I worshipped threw me over for another, I swore I would never look a woman in the face again with the idea of wedding; and in utter disgust left England, and all I knew, to roam for a time in the Malay Archipelago; and from thence I went to South America, following out my natural history tasks. Then I found out I had been a fool." "I do not understand you, papa." "I found, my darling, that I had wasted the strength of a young man's first love upon a miserable handsome coquette." "How did you find that out, papa?" "By meeting your dear mother, who was everything a true woman should be; and instead of my life proving to be a miserable state of exile, it was all that joy could give till the day of the great pain." There was another long pause, and then the Doctor said cheerfully,-- "And that's why Doctor Salado went away from England. By the way, Very, I'm not a regular doctor, though I studied medicine after I left England very hard." "How can you say so, dear, when you know how all the poor people cried at your going away? They said no one would ever cure them of the fever again as you did. Why, they always called you the great doctor." "Yes, my dear: but people here would call me the great quack. There, I'm going for my walk round. But--hullo! here's his lordship to see the burnt hoarding." For just at that moment Lord Pinemount's loud, harsh voice floated in at the window. "Disgraceful!" he cried. Then there was a murmur of another voice, and again of another, as if two men were respectfully addressing his lordship. "An old scoundrel!" came in at the window again. "He means me!" cried the Doctor excitedly, rising. "No, no, papa--please, please!" whispered Veronica, clinging to him. "But I'm sure he does, Very." "I mean, don't go out, papa dear: you would be so angry." "Would be? I am!--furiously angry. How dare he call me an old scoundrel!" "Pray, pray don't quarrel with him, dear." "I'm not going to, pet; but I'll knock his head off for him." "No, no; you shall not go out, dear. I will not have my dear father disgrace himself like that." "I declare, Very, you are worse than your poor mother used to be. I must go and hit him, or I shall explode." "Then please explode here, papa dear, at me." "You're a strange girl, Very, 'pon my soul," cried the Doctor. "Yes, papa dear," she said quietly, but clinging tightly to his arm. "How dare he come and damage my property!" floated in through the window. "Buzz-buzz-buzz," from another voice. "But I will, sir. How dare he? I'll lay the horsewhip across the scoundrel's back!" "Buzz-buzz--buzz-buzz." "Law or no law, he shall have the horsewhip first and the fine or imprisonment afterwards. These foreign rowdy ways shall not be tolerated here."