company--silence from all but Nettie and the children, who referred to her naturally instead of to their mother. Fred was sullen, and his wife took her cue from him. Edward was uneasy and dismayed. Family parties suddenly assembled without due warning are seldom greatly successful; and even Nettie could not make immediate reconciliation and fraternal kindness out of this. CHAPTER IV. "Take me down this long pretty road. There must be delicious houses inside the walls. Look here; drive slowly, and let us have a peep in at this open door," said Nettie. "How sweet and cosy! and who is that pretty young lady coming out? I saw her in the chapel this morning. Oh," added Nettie, with a little sharpness, "she knows _you_--tell me who she is." "That is Miss Lucy Wodehouse--one of our Carlingford beauties," said Dr Rider. "Do you know her very well?" asked the inquisitive Nettie. "How she stares--why does she stare, do you suppose? Is there anything absurd about my dress? Look here--don't they wear bonnets just like this in England?" "So far as I am able to judge," said the doctor, looking at the tiny head overladen with hair, from which the bonnet had fallen half off. "I suppose she is surprised to see me here. Drive on faster, Dr Edward, I want to talk to you. I see Fred has been telling us a parcel of stories. It would be cruel to tell Susan, you know, for she believes in him; but you may quite trust me. Is your brother good for anything, Dr Edward, do you suppose?" "Not very much now, I fear," said the doctor. "Not very much _now_. I suppose he never was good for much," said the indignant Nettie; "but he was said to be very clever when he first came out to the colony. I can't tell why Susan married him. She is very self-willed, though you would fancy her so submissive. She is one of those people, you know, who fall ill when they are crossed, and threaten to die, so that one daren't cross her. Now, then, what is to be done with them? He will not go back to the colony, and I don't care to do it myself. Must I keep them here?" "Miss Underwood----" began the perplexed doctor. "It would save trouble to call me Nettie--everybody does," said his strange companion; "besides, you are my brother in a kind of a way, and the only person I can consult with; for, of course, it would not do to tell one's difficulties to strangers. Fred may not be very much to depend upon, you know, but still he is Fred." "Yes," said the doctor, with a little self-reproach, "still he is Fred; but pardon me, the name suggests long aggravations. You can't tell how often I have had to put up with affronts and injuries because it was Fred. I shouldn't like to grieve you----" "Never mind about grieving me;--_I_ am not in love with him;--let me hear all about it!" said Nettie.