But those operations the most suddenly conceived are not always the worst executed. Necessity, if not genius, is often a successful imitator of that quality. When the doctor drove up at the gate in front of the house, his "ward" and her new companion were just dodging out of the tall bean-poles and shrubbery, over the garden fence, to the edge of the meadow; by the time he had fairly entered the house they were on the causeway and partially sheltered by the elders that ran along it and fringed the bank of the singing brook; and long before he could have discovered the flight and made such inquiries of the servants as might have directed his gaze in that direction, the lawyer in his strangely soiled and unaccustomed attire, and the girl so slightly arrayed for starting out on her travels in the world, were within the circle of woods before mentioned, stretching northward to the great road leading down to the city. CHAPTER IX. DR. POMEROY'S PURPOSED PURSUIT--A PLAIN QUAKER WHO USED VERY PLAIN LANGUAGE--ALMOST A FIGHT--HOW MRS. BURTON HAYLEY CONSOLED HER DAUGHTER, AND HOW MARGARET REVEALED THE PAST--A COMPACT--DR. POMEROY'S CANINE ADVENTURE--OLD ELSPETH ONCE MORE--A SEARCH THAT FOUND NOTHING. It will be noticed that with the exception of the somewhat extended glance at the earlier fortunes of Eleanor Hill, all the occurrences thus far recorded, and affecting the after lives of so many different people, have occupied not more than two or three hours of a single June day. The Parcæ were evidently very busy on that day of June, repaying the past and arranging the future; and not less than three scenes of this veritable history yet remain, occurring on the same day, a little later, but within the same space as to distance, that has been covered by those preceding.