ask no questions. No wonder,
then, they feel uncomfortable when they get into a clear climate,
where they can see the sun, and hear ideas buzzing about their ears
like a swarm of bees."

The doctor appeared to have forgotten his own question, and not to
have heard Miss Armstrong's.

"You are looking remarkably well," he said. "You ought to be ashamed
to meet me: if everybody else were like you, I should starve."

"All your own fault, dear doctor. Your presence brings cheerfulness
and health."

"To say nothing of the medicine. Of that (in confidence between us),
the less the better. If I should ever become crazy enough to prescribe
any other than bread pills, be sure to throw them out of the window.
There, you have the secret of medical success; though if I pursue the
system much longer, I think I shall be obliged to adopt the Emperor
of China's plan, and require a salary for your health, on condition it
shall stop when you are sick."

"I admire the Emperor's plan, so let it be understood that is the
arrangement between us. I have the best of the bargain, for I shall
secure a greater number of visits."

"You provoking creature! smothering me with compliments, and
pretending you are not dying with curiosity. This is always the way
with your tormenting sex:

'Let Hercules do what he may,
The cat will mew'"--

"And girls will have their way," interrupted Faith, laughing, and
finishing the quotation to suit herself. "But, doctor, you have
conquered, and please now 'unmuzzle your wisdom.'"

"Methinks," cried the doctor, "'sometimes I have no more wit than a
Christian or an ordinary man; but I am a great eater of beef, and
I believe that does harm to my wit,' else I should not allow you to
tease me. But," added he, in a more serious tone, "there is a report
in the village that an attempt has been made to arrest Holden."

"To arrest whom?" exclaimed Faith, turning pale, "father Holden! For
what?"

"He is not taken yet, and, were one to believe all the stories one
hears, not likely to be. According to them, his enchanted castle on
Salmon Island is protected, not only by his own stalwart arm, but by
legions of ghosts and hobgoblins; and, since that is the case, he
may safely defy the _posse comitatus_ itself, with the sheriff at its
head. But, for the cause--

"'It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,
Let me not name it to you, ye chaste stars,
It is the cause'--

Why, because he made the most in