e relenting
doctor, much moved by having the parcels confided to his care, had drawn
the little hand which gave them within his arm, a proceeding which
Nettie distinctly disapproved of. She withdrew her hand quickly, and
walked on with much dignity by his side.

"I can carry your parcels," said Edward, after a little pause, "but you
will not let me help yourself. You take the heaviest burdens upon your
shoulders, and then will have no assistance in bearing them. How long
are these children of Fred's--detestable little imps!--to work you to
death?"

"You are speaking of _my_ children, sir!" cried Nettie, with a little
blaze of resentment. "But you don't mean it, Dr Edward," she said, a
moment after, in a slightly coaxing tone. "You are tired and cross after
your day's work. Perhaps it will be best, if you are very cross, not to
come down all the way to the Cottage, thank you. I don't want you to
quarrel with Fred."

"Cross! Nettie, you are enough to drive twenty men distracted!" cried
the poor doctor. "You know as well as I do what I have been dying to
say to you these three months past; and to see you go on with these
confounded children without so much as a glance for a fellow who----"

"Don't speak like that," cried Nettie, with brilliant female instinct;
"you'll be sorry for it after; for you know, Dr Edward, you have _not_
said anything particular to me these three months past."

This touch gave the last exasperation to the agitated mind of the
doctor. He burst forth into a passionate outbreak of love and anger,
curiously mingled, but too warm and real to leave Nettie much coolness
of observation under the circumstances. She took the advantage over
him which a woman naturally does in such a case. She went on softly,
trembling sufficiently to her own consciousness, but not to his,
suffering him to pour out that torrent without interruption. She made
no answer till the whole agitated self-disclosure was complete. In the
interval she got a little command of herself, and was able to speak when
it came to her turn.

"Dr Edward," said Nettie, solemnly, "you know it is impossible. If we
cared for each other ever so much, what could we do? I am not free
to--to make any change; and I know very well, and so do you, that you
never could put up with Fred and Susan and the children, were things as
you say ten times over. I don't mean I don't believe you. I don't mean I
might not have been pleased had things been different