ow I think of it, I had better say nothing
more about it. There are reasons, and I ought not to have spoken of
it. You won't be provoked with me, will you?"

Mary assured her that she would not be provoked, and of course asked
no more questions about Mary Scatcherd; nor did she think much more
about it. It was not so however with her ladyship, who could not
keep herself from reflecting that the old clergyman in the Close at
Barchester certainly had but two sons, one of whom was now the doctor
at Greshamsbury, and the other of whom had perished so wretchedly at
the gate of that farmyard. Who then was the father of Mary Thorne?

The days passed very quietly at Boxall Hill. Every morning Mary went
out on her donkey, who justified by his demeanour all that had been
said in his praise; then she would read or draw, then walk with Lady
Scatcherd, then dine, then walk again; and so the days passed quietly
away. Once or twice a week the doctor would come over and drink his
tea there, riding home in the cool of the evening. Mary also received
one visit from her friend Patience.

So the days passed quietly away till the tranquillity of the house
was suddenly broken by tidings from London. Lady Scatcherd received a
letter from her son, contained in three lines, in which he intimated
that on the following day he meant to honour her with a visit. He had
intended, he said, to have gone to Brighton with some friends; but as
he felt himself a little out of sorts, he would postpone his marine
trip and do his mother the grace of spending a few days with her.

This news was not very pleasant to Mary, by whom it had been
understood, as it had also by her uncle, that Lady Scatcherd would
have had the house to herself; but as there were no means of
preventing the evil, Mary could only inform the doctor, and prepare
herself to meet Sir Louis Scatcherd.

CHAPTER XXVIII

The Doctor Hears Something to His Advantage

Sir Louis Scatcherd had told his mother that he was rather out of
sorts, and when he reached Boxall Hill it certainly did not appear
that he had given any exaggerated statement of his own maladies. He
certainly was a good deal out of sorts. He had had more than one
attack of delirium tremens since his father's death, and had almost
been at death's door.

Nothing had been said about this by Dr Thorne at Boxall Hill; but
he was by no means ignorant of his ward's state. Twice he had gone
up to London to visit him; twice