ook round in the
course of the forenoon to see how the new tonic agrees with Miss Daisy;
but I may be a little late; I'm summoned in haste to the Manor."

Here he touched his little pony's head with the whip, and, before Mrs.
Jenkins could utter a word of either astonishment or interest, had
turned the corner and was out of sight.

The fashionable disease of nerves had not yet become an epidemic at
Northbury, and Dr. Morris was a little puzzled at the symptoms which his
great patient exhibited. He was proud to speak of Mrs. Bertram as his
"great patient," and told her to her face in rather a fulsome manner
that he considered it the highest possible honor to attend her. He
ordered his favorite tonic of cod liver oil, told her to stay in bed,
and keep on low diet, and, having pocketed his fee drove away.

Mrs. Bertram was outwardly very civil to the Northbury doctor, but when
he departed she scolded Catherine and Mabel for having sent for him,
tore up his prescription, wrote one for herself, which she sent to the
chemist to have made up, and desired Catherine to give her a glass of
port wine from one of a treasured few bottles of a rare vintage which
she had brought with her to Rosendale.

"It was a few days after her visit to the Meadowsweets that Mrs. Bertram
had been taken ill. She soon became quite well again, and then rather
astonished Catherine by telling her that she had herself seen Beatrice
Meadowsweet; that she had found her daughter's judgment with regard to
her to be apparently correct, and that, in consequence, she did not
object to Beatrice visiting at the Manor.

"You may make Miss Meadowsweet your friend," she said to both girls.
"She may come here, and you may sometimes go to see her. But remember,
she is the only Northbury young lady I will admit into my society."

A few days afterwards, Loftus, who had again managed to obtain leave of
absence from his military duties, reappeared on the scenes. As has been
seen, Loftus would admit of no restrictions with regard to his
acquaintances, and after the remarkable fashion of some young men, he
tried to secure an interest in the affections of Beatrice by flirting
with Matty Bell.

Mrs. Bertram knew nothing of these iniquities on the part of her son. It
never entered even into her wildest dreams that any son or daughter of
her could associate with people of the stamp of the Bells. Even had she
been aware of it, however, she knew better than to try to coerc