alert, decided,
uncompromising--not disinclined to snub either Fred or Susan when
opportunity offered, totally unconscious even of that delicacy with
which a high fantastical heroine of romance would have found it
necessary to treat her dependants. It was this unconsciousness, above
all, that irritated the doctor. If she had shown any feeling, he said
to himself--if she had even been grandly aware of sacrificing herself
and doing her duty--there would have been some consolation in it. But
Nettie obstinately refused to be said to do her duty. She was doing
her own will with an imperious distinctness and energy--having her own
way--displaying no special virtue, but a determined wilfulness. Dr
Rider was half disgusted with Nettie, to see how little disgust she
showed of her companions. He was disappointed in her: he concluded to
himself that she did not show that fine perception which he was disposed
to expect from so dainty a little sprite. Yet, notwithstanding all these
disappointed expectations, it is astonishing how he haunted that room
where the society was so unattractive, and bore Mrs Fred's spiteful
speeches, and suffered his eyes and his temper to be vexed beyond
endurance by the dismal sight of his brother. The children, too, worried
their unfortunate uncle beyond description. He did not dislike children:
as a general rule, mothers in the other end of Carlingford, indeed,
declared the doctor to be wonderfully tender and indulgent to his
little patients: but those creatures, with their round staring eyes,
the calm remarks they made upon their father's slovenly indolence and
their mother's imbecility--their precocious sharp-sightedness and
insubordination, moved Dr Rider with a sharp prevailing inclination,
intensifying by times almost into action, to whip them all round, and
banish the intolerable brats out of sight. Such was his unpaternal way
of contemplating the rising hopes of his house. How Nettie could bear it
all, was an unceasing marvel to the doctor. Yet, in spite of these
disagreeables, he went to St Roque's all the same.

One of these winter evenings the doctor wended his way to St Roque's
Cottage in a worse frame of mind than usual. It was a clear frosty
night, very pleasant to be out in, though sharp and chill; such a night
as brightens young eyes, and exhilarates young hearts, when all is well
with them. Young Rider could hear his own footsteps echoing along the
hard frost-bound road, and could not b