"Eh? What? You don't think so, do you?" "I should be sorry to pass any judgment upon the matter, Mr Saxby," said the doctor quietly; "and now we part. Good-day." "Prayle, eh?" said Saxby. "Well, I never thought of him, and--Ah, she's about the nicest, simplest, and sweetest girl I ever saw! But, Prayle!" People wondered why the smartly dressed City man stopped short and removed his glossy hat to rub one ear. Volume 1, Chapter XV. A WIFE'S APPEAL. Two months of the life of John Scales passed away, during which he had three opportunities of gaining good additions to his practice, but in each case he set himself so thoroughly in apposition to the medical men with whom he was to be associated, that they one and all combined against him; and the heterodox professor of strange ideas of his own had the satisfaction of learning that his services would be dispensed with. "It doesn't matter," he said to himself. "I'm a deal happier as I am. Strange I haven't heard from James Scarlett, by the way. I'll give him a look in at his chambers. That Rosery is a paradise of a place! I wonder how the Diana is that I met--Lady Martlett. If I were an artist, I should go mad to paint her. As I'm a doctor," he added reflectively, "I should like her as a patient." "I shall be ready to believe in being influenced, if this sort of thing goes on," said the doctor, a couple of hours later, as he read a letter from Lady Scarlett, giving him a long and painful account of his friend's state of health. "Had four different doctors down," read Scales. "Hum--ha, of course-- would have asked me to come too, but they refused to meet me. Ha! I'm getting a nice character, somehow. Say they can do no more. Humph! Wonder at that. Growing moral, I suppose. Might have made a twelvemonth's job of it. Humph! Cousin, Mr Arthur Prayle, been so kind. Given up everything to attend to dear James's affairs. I shouldn't like him to have anything to do with mine. Will I come down at once? James wishes it. Well, I suppose I must, poor old chap. They've been dosing him to death. Poor old boy! the shock of that drowning could hardly have kept up till now." The upshot of it was that the doctor ran down that afternoon. Next morning, on entering the study, he found Lady Scarlett and Prayle seated at the table, the latter leaning towards his cousin's wife, and apparently pointing to something, in a small clasped book, with the very sharply pointed pencil that he held in his hand. Prayle started, and shifted his position quickly. Lady Scarlett did not move, beyond looking up at the doctor anxiously, as his stern face was turned towards her. "I beg your pardon," he said; "I did not know that you were engaged." "Mr Prayle was explaining some business matters to me," said Lady Scarlett. "Don't go away. You said you should like to talk to me this morning." "Yes," replied the doctor coldly; "but the business will keep."