ll have offered it. I suppose there can be no reason now
about money."

"But I understood that Mary specially asked you and Augusta?"

"Yes; Mary was very good. She did ask me. But I know very well that
Mary wants all the room she has got in London. The house is not at
all too large for herself, And, for the matter of that, my sister,
the countess, was very anxious that I should be with her. But one
does like to be independent if one can, and for one fortnight I do
think that Mr. Gresham might have managed it. When I knew that he was
so dreadfully out at elbows I never troubled him about it,--though,
goodness knows, all that was never my fault."

"The squire hates London. A fortnight there in warm weather would
nearly be the death of him."

"He might at any rate have paid me the compliment of asking me.
The chances are ten to one I should not have gone. It is that
indifference that cuts me so. He was here just now, and would you
believe it?--"

But the doctor was determined to avoid further complaint for the
present day. "I wonder what you would feel, Lady Arabella, if the
squire were to take it into his head to go away and amuse himself,
leaving you at home. There are worse men than Mr. Gresham, if you
will believe me." All this was an allusion to Earl de Courcy, her
ladyship's brother, as Lady Arabella very well understood; and the
argument was one which was very often used to silence her.

"Upon my word, then, I should like it better than his hanging about
here doing nothing but attend to those nasty dogs. I really sometimes
think that he has no spirit left."

"You are mistaken there, Lady Arabella," said the doctor, rising with
his hat in his hand, and making his escape without further parley. As
he went home he could not but think that that phase of married life
was not a very pleasant one. Mr. Gresham and his wife were supposed
by the world to live on the best of terms. They always inhabited the
same house, went out together when they did go out, always sat in
their respective corners in the family pew, and in their wildest
dreams after the happiness of novelty never thought of Sir Cresswell
Cresswell. In some respects--with regard, for instance, to the
continued duration of their joint domesticity at the family mansion
of Greshamsbury--they might have been taken for a pattern couple. But
yet, as far as the doctor could see, they did not seem to add much to
the happiness of each other. They loved each o