nything happens, by God, I'll have you up for manslaughter.' I
rang the bell. 'Leave the house,' I said, 'and never dare come here
again!' Now don't you think I was right, Jamie?"

"My dear Mary, you always are!"

James looked back at the doctor entering the cottage. It was some
comfort to think that he would put the old man into a comfortable
position.

"When I told papa," added Mary, "he got in a most fearful rage. He
insisted on going out with a horsewhip, and said he meant to thrash Dr.
Higgins. He looked for him all the morning, but couldn't find him; and
then your mother and I persuaded him it was better to treat such a
vulgar man with silent contempt."

James had noticed that the doctor was a burly, broad-shouldered fellow,
and he could not help thinking Colonel Clibborn's resolution distinctly
wise. How sad it is that in this world right is so often subordinate to
brute force!

"But he's not received anywhere. We all cut him; and I get everyone I
can not to employ him."

"Ah!" murmured James.

Mary's next patient was feminine, and James was again left to cool his
heels in the road; but not alone, for Mr. Dryland came out of the
cottage. The curate was a big, stout man, with reddish hair, and a
complexion like squashed strawberries and cream; his large, heavy face,
hairless except for scanty red eyebrows, gave a disconcerting impression
of nakedness. His eyes were blue and his mouth small, with the
expression which young ladies, eighty years back, strove to acquire by
repeating the words prune and prism. He had a fat, full voice, with
unctuous modulations not entirely under his control, so that sometimes,
unintentionally, he would utter the most commonplace remark in a tone
fitted for a benediction. Mr. Dryland was possessed by the laudable
ambition to be all things to all men; and he tried, without conspicuous
success, always to suit his conversation to his hearers. With old ladies
he was bland; with sportsmen slangy; with yokels he was broadly
humorous; and with young people aggressively juvenile. But above all, he
wished to be manly, and cultivated a boisterous laugh and a jovial
manner.

"I don't know if you remember me," he cried, with a ripple of fat
laughter, going up to James, "I had the pleasure of addressing a few
words to you yesterday in my official capacity. Miss Clibborn told me
you were waiting, and I thought I would introduce myself. My name is
Dryland."

"I remember quite well."

"