‘Mamma, how can you be so disagreeable to poor Phil!’ remonstrated Matilda, with indignation. ‘I’m sure he has been as kind and good to everyone, as anyone could be. But, Phil, why don’t you ask Mr. Torwood to Ladywell? If he is well enough, he would certainly enjoy the change; and if he is ill, he ought to see an English doctor, I am sure. I don’t believe foreign ones are the least good. Why don’t you have him over, and get the very best advice to be had for him?’ ‘I should have said that was the very least you could have done for a friend, to whom you owe so much,’ said Mrs. Belassis. ‘So I shall do, if this German man fails,’ answered Tor. ‘That is to say, he shall come if he will; but I have every reason to believe he will soon be well, and there will then be no need for further advice.’ ‘But you will ask him to Ladywell, won’t you, when he is well?’ ‘Oh yes,’ answered Tor, with a rather peculiar smile. ‘He shall come over as soon as ever he is well. I think you will like him, Matilda.’ ‘Is he good-looking?’ ‘Yes; I think so.’ ‘As good-looking as you, Phil?’ archly. ‘Why, yes; decidedly more so, I should say,’ answered Tor, smiling. ‘I always told him he was quite the lady-killer.’ ‘If he is so presentable,’ remarked Mrs. Belassis ruthlessly, cutting short Matilda’s attempt at a flirtation, ‘I cannot think why you did not bring him with you.’ ‘You must remember that he is not a “tame dog.” He had not the least wish to come.’ ‘How odd! I should have thought he would have liked the fun. Did you ask him? Did he say he would not?’ ‘He did not express the least wish to accompany me, which comes much to the same thing. I could not urge him, as he was seedy; and it would hardly have been fair to the German doctor, to have taken him away before he had given his system a trial.’ ‘What is the matter with him?’ asked Mrs. Belassis sharply. ‘I do not know. He had a fall, and injured himself somewhere. I fancy perhaps it is the spine, for he has to lie on his back a good deal. I must go over and see him soon, for he is an awfully bad correspondent. Well, Matilda, shall we go for a row on the lake there? I shall have much pleasure in sculling you, if you have a fancy for a boat.’ Matilda complied joyfully, delighted to have secured her handsome cousin for her companion; but she found him disappointingly absent and absorbed, though he concealed any appearance of anxiety so successfully, that she had no idea how much disturbance of mind her mother’s words had occasioned him.