when you were seated here!" I said this in a
whisper. I felt her hand tremble as it lay on
my arm.

"You saw me seated here!"

"Yes. I will tell you how, some day."

Lilian lifted her eyes to mine, and there was
in them that same surprise which I had noticed
on my first visit—a surprise that perplexed me,
blended with no displeasure, but yet with a
something of vague alarm.

We soon returned to the house.

Mrs. Ashleigh made me a sign to follow her
into the drawing-room, leaving Mrs. Poyntz
with Lilian.

"Well?" said she, tremblingly.

"Permit me to see Dr. Jones's prescriptions.
Thank you. Ay, I thought so. My dear
madam, the mistake here has been in depressing
nature instead of strengthening; in narcotics
instead of stimulants. The main stimulants
which leave no reaction are air and light.
Promise me that I may have my own way for a
week; that all I recommend will be implicitly
heeded?"

"I promise. But that cough; you noticed it?"

"Yes. The nervous system is terribly
lowered, and nervous exhaustion is a strange
impostor—it imitates all manner of complaints
with which it has no connexion. The cough
will soon disappear! But pardon my question.
Mrs. Poyntz tells me that you consulted a
clairvoyante about your daughter. Does Miss
Ashleigh know that you did so?"

"No; I did not tell her."

"I am glad of that. And pray, for Heaven's
sake, guard her against all that may set her
thinking on such subjects. Above all, guard
her against concentring attention on any malady
that your fears erroneously ascribe to her. It
is amongst the phenomena of our organisation
that you cannot closely rivet your consciousness
on any part of the frame, however healthy,
but it will soon begin to exhibit morbid
sensibility. Try to fix all your attention on your
little finger for half an hour, and before the half
hour is over the little finger will be uneasy,
probably even painful. How serious, then, is
the danger to a young girl at the age in which
imagination is most active, most intense, if you
force upon her a belief that she is in danger of
a mortal disease; it is a peculiarity of youth
to brood over the thought of early death much
more resignedly, much more complacently, than
we do in maturer years. Impress on a young
imaginative girl, as free from pulmonary tendencies
as you and I are, the conviction that she must
fade away into the grave, and though she may
not actually die of consumption, you instil slow
poison into her system. Hope is the natural
aliment of youth. You impoverish nourishment
where you discourage hope. As soon as this
temporary illness is over, reject for your
daughter the melancholy care which seems to
her own mind to mark her out from others of
her age. Rear her for the air—which is the
kindest life-giver; to sleep with open windows;
to be out at sunrise. Nature will do more for
her than all our drugs can do. You have been
hitherto fearing Nature, now trust to her."

Here Mrs. Poyntz joined us, and having, while
I had been speaking, written my prescription and
some general injunctions, I closed my advice
with an appeal to that powerful protectress.

"This, my dear madam, is a case in which I
need your aid, and I ask it. Miss Ashleigh should
not be left with no other companion than her
mother. A change of faces is often as salutary
as a change of air. If you could devote an hour
or two this very evening to sit with Miss
Ashleigh, to talk to her with your usual easy
cheerfulness, and——"

"Anne," interrupted Mrs. Poyntz, "I will
come and drink tea with you at half-past seven,
and bring my knitting; and perhaps, if you ask
him, Dr. Fenwick will come too! He can be
tolerably entertaining when he likes it."

"It is too great a tax on his kindness, I fear,"
said Mrs. Ashleigh. "But," she added
cordially, " I should be grateful indeed if he would
spare us an hour of his time."

I murmured an assent, which I endeavoured
to make not too joyous.

"So that matter is settled," said Mrs. Poyntz;
"and now I shall go to Mr. Vigors and
prevent his further interference."

"Oh! but, Margaret, pray don't offend him;
a connexion of my poor dear Gilbert's. And
so tetchy! I am sure I do not know how you'll
manage to——"

"To get rid of him? Never fear. As I
manage everything and everybody," said Mrs.
Poyntz, bluntly. So she kissed her friend on
the forehead, gave me a gracious nod, and,
declining the offer of my carriage, walked with her
usual brisk, decided tread down the short path
towards the town.

Mrs. Ashleigh timidly approached me, and
again the furtive hand bashfully insinuating the
hateful fee!

"Stay," said I; "this is a case which needs
the most constant watching. I wish to call so
often that I should seem the most greedy of
doctors if my visits were to be computed at
guineas. Let me be at ease to effect my cure;
my pride of science is involved in it. And when
amongst all the young ladies of the Hill you can
point to none with a fresher bloom, or a fairer
promise of healthful life, than the patient you
entrust to my care, why, then the fee and the
dismissal. Nay, nay; I must refer you to our
friend Mrs. Poyntz. It was so settled with
her before she brought me here to displace Dr.
Jones." Therewith I escaped.

CHAPTER XV.

IN less than a week Lilian was convalescent;
in less than a fortnight she regained her usual
health; nay, Mrs. Ashleigh declared that she
had never known her daughter appear so cheerful
and look so well. I had established a
familiar intimacy at Abbots' House; most of my
evenings were spent there. As horse exercise
formed an important part of my advice, Mrs.
Ashleigh had purchased a pretty and quiet horse for