's self, and
has nothing at best but an easy-chair to go home to, and goes home
expecting a letter, or a message, or a visitor who has not arrived, and
has no chance of arriving, the revulsion of feeling is not agreeable.
It did not improve the doctor's temper in the first place. The chill
loneliness of that trim room, with its drawn curtains and tidy pretence
of being comfortable, exasperated him beyond bearing. He felt shut up
in it, and yet would not leave it. Somebody certainly might come even
to-night. Fred himself perhaps, if he could escape from the rigid
guardianship he was under; or was that miraculous Australian Nettie a
little witch, who had spirited the whole party in a nutshell over the
seas? Never was man delivered from a burden with a worse grace than was
Dr Rider; and the matter had not mended in these twenty-four hours.

Next morning, however, this fever of fraternal suspense was assuaged.
A three-cornered note, addressed in an odd feminine hand, very thin,
small, and rapid, came among Dr Rider's letters. He signalled it out by
instinct, and opened it with an impatience wonderful to behold.

"SIR,--We are all at the Blue Boar until we can get lodgings, which I
hope to be to-day. I am utterly ashamed of Fred for not having let you
know, and indeed of myself for trusting to him. I should not wonder but
we may have been under a mistake about him and you. If you could call
about one, I should most likely be in to see you, and perhaps you could
give me your advice about the lodgings. Neither of _them_ have the
least judgment in such matters. I am sorry to trouble you; but being a
stranger, perhaps you will excuse me. I understand you are only at home
in the evening, and that is just the time I can't come out, as I have
the whole of them to look to, which is the reason I ask you to call on
me. Begging you will pardon me, I remain,
"NETTIE UNDERWOOD."

"She remains Nettie Underwood," said the doctor, unawares. He laughed to
himself at that conclusion. Then an odd gleam came across his face. It
was probably the first time he had laughed in a natural fashion for some
months back, and the unusual exertion made his cheeks tingle. His temper
was improved that morning. He went off to his patients almost in a good
humour. When he passed the great house where Bessie Christian now reigned,
he recalled her image with a positive effort. Astonishing what an effect
of di