h stupider than I take him to be if he couldn't."

"He is not stupid: it is the want of stupidity or silliness that makes
trifling of that kind impossible to him," said Mary.

"It's a pity," her friend said. "What's the use of taking things so
seriously? I think a little flirtation a nice amusement, very much
suited to young people."

"To some young people: I should not like to try it. I should be sure to
burn my fingers."

"Singe your heart, you mean; but it goes off in a little, I suppose, for
I can't speak from experience."

"No, I trust not."

"Do you know," said Miss Robertson, "that I have a great ambition for
your brother? I think it a thousand pities that he should settle here. I
am far more ambitious for him than you are, or than I believe he is for
himself."

"It seemed the best opening that offered at the time," said Mary.

"A far inferior man would suit this place just as well. He'll work
himself to death, and nobody be the wiser or the better, whereas if he
had been in town he would have come to the surface, and might have been
driving his carriage shortly. That little thick-set, red-haired,
bulldog-looking man that was here the other night--Dr. What's-his-name,
your nearest medical neighbor?--that's the kind of man for a country
doctor. He has the bodily strength and the rough-and-ready manners for
the place: he is not too bright or good for human nature's daily drugs.
Were you present when he told about his attendance on Sir James Grieve,
the great man of his district?"

"No, I did not hear him speak of that."

"Sir James had a cold, and there was an ado made about it as if there
had not been another man in the world. The doctor was nights in the
house, and there were consultations and forms and ceremonies, and as
many fykes, he said, and his time was uselessly taken up, and other
patients neglected; and he could not charge at all in proportion. Even
as it was, Sir James went over every item of his account singly, and had
it explained. Imagine your brother going through all that if the earl of
Birndale takes a cold!"

"He would not go through it: he would give what attendance he thought
necessary, and if his charge were called in question he would decline
payment altogether: that's what he would do."

"And how would it work, do you think?"

"It would work well: upright, honorable dealing always works well in the
long run."

"But in the short? Why, the displeasure of the earl would be eno