"Not if I know it, Jack. Get out, you old rascal, you want to run me up a bill. I'm as sound as a roach, and shall be as long as I lead my country-life. I say, I'm going to empty the pond to-day. We'll get the water out, and then the ladies can come and see us catch the fish." "Us?" said the doctor, "us?" "Yes, you shall have a landing-net at the end of a pole. You'll come?" "Is Prayle going to be there?" "Of course." "Then I think I shall stay away." "Nonsense, you prejudiced humbug. I want you to see the fun. You will come?" "My dear James Scarlett, I do not get on at my profession, I know now why. It is from weakness of will. I see it now. You have taught me that lesson this morning. First, I find myself listening to a rigmarole about growing fruit under glass. Now I am weakly consenting to make myself as much a schoolboy as you in your verdant idyllic life." "Then you'll come?" "Oh, yes," said the doctor grimly, "I'll come. Shall I go into the mud after eels?" "If you like, I'll lend you a pair of old trousers. I shall." "My dear fellow, I shall be attending you one of these days for paralysis brought on by cold; or spinal--" "Nancy, two big glasses of new milk," cried Sir James, for they had entered the dairy. "I say, Jack, old fellow, I want to give you a little more of my natural history lecture, because it would be sure to help me on." "I feel," said the doctor, "as if I had a soft collar round my neck, and was being led about by a chain. There, make the most of me while I'm here, you don't catch me down again." "Don't I?" said Sir James. "Why, my dear Jack, Kitty and I have made up our minds to find you a wife." Volume 1, Chapter VII. SIR JAMES CATCHES COLD IN THE BACK. "And are there any fish in that muddy pond, Monnick?" said Arthur Prayle that morning after breakfast. "Oh, sir, yes; you should see them sometimes; great fellows that come up after the bread you throw in. Are you coming to see it emptied?" Arthur Prayle looked at his glossy black garments, and then, bowing his head, gravely said, "Yes, perhaps I shall be there," and he raised his book and went on down the garden. His "perhaps" proved a certainty, for when the party started from the house to go across the fields he walked sedately between Aunt Sophia and Naomi, talking softly all the time till they reached the place.