ore rent? I am not surprised, I am sure, after last night. Was it
not odious of Fred to go and smoke in the parlour, the only place we can
have tidy? But it is no use speaking to him, you know; nor to Susan
either, for that matter. Married people do stand up for each other so
when you say a word, however they may fight between themselves. But is
it more rent they want, Dr Edward? for I can't afford more rent."

"It is an abominable shame--you oughtn't to afford anything. It is too
dreadful to think of!" cried the angry doctor, involuntarily touching
his horse with his whip in the energy of the moment, though he was
indeed in no hurry to reach Carlingford.

"Hush," said Nettie, lifting her tiny hand as though to put it to his
incautious mouth, which, indeed, the doctor would not have objected to.
"We shall quarrel on that subject if you say anything more, so it is
better to stop at once. Nobody has a right to interfere with me; this
is my business, and no one else has anything to do with it."

"You mistake," cried the doctor, startled out of all his prudences; "it
ought to be my business quite as much as it is yours."

Nettie looked at him with a certain careless scorn of the inferior
creature--"Ah, yes, I daresay; but then you are only a man," said
Nettie; and the girl elevated that pretty drooping head, and flashed a
whole torrent of brilliant reflections over the sombre figure beside
her. He felt himself glow under the sudden radiance of the look. To
fancy this wilful imperious creature a meek self-sacrificing heroine,
was equally absurd and impossible. Was there any virtue at all in that
dauntless enterprise of hers? or was it simple determination to have her
own way?

"But not to quarrel," said Nettie; "for indeed you are the only person
in the world I can say a word to about the way things are going on," she
added with a certain momentary softening of voice and twinkling of her
eyelid, as if some moisture had gathered there. "I think Fred is in a
bad way. I think he is muddling his brains with that dreadful life he
leads. To think of a man that could do hundreds of things living like
that! A woman, you know, can only do a thing or two here and there. If
it were not wicked to say so, one would think almost that Providence
forgot sometimes, and put the wrong spirit into a body that did not
belong to it. Don't you think so? When I look at Fred I declare sometimes
I could take hold of him and give him a good shake,