lf-closed doorway;--all which Lady Staveley understood
perfectly.

"Baker," she had said, with more of anger in her voice than was usual
with her, "why do you leave that door open?"

"I think it sweetens the room, my lady;" and, indeed, Felix Graham
sometimes thought so too.

"Nonsense; every sound in the house must be heard. Keep it shut, if
you please."

"Yes, my lady," said Mrs. Baker--who also understood perfectly.

"He is better, my darling," said Mrs. Baker to Madeline, the same
day; "and, indeed, for that he is well enough as regards eating and
drinking. But it would be cruelty to move him yet. I heard what the
doctor said."

"Who talks of moving him?"

"Well, he talks of it himself; and the doctor said it might be
possible. But I know what that means."

"What does it mean?"

"Why, just this: that if we want to get rid of him, it won't quite be
the death of him."

"But who wants to get rid of him?"

"I'm sure I don't. I don't mind my trouble the least in life. He's as
nice a young gentleman as ever I sat beside the bed of; and he's full
of spirit--he is."

And then Madeline appealed to her mother. Surely her mother would not
let Mr. Graham be sent out of the house in his present state, merely
because the doctor said it might be possible to move him without
causing his instant death! And tears stood in poor Madeline's eyes
as she thus pleaded the cause of the sick and wounded. This again
tormented Lady Staveley, who found it necessary to give further
caution to Mrs. Baker. "Baker," she said, "how can you be so foolish
as to be talking to Miss Madeline about Mr. Graham's arm?"

"Who, my lady? I, my lady?"

"Yes, you; when you know that the least thing frightens her. Don't
you remember how ill it made her when Roger"--Roger was an old family
groom--"when Roger had that accident?" Lady Staveley might have saved
herself the trouble of the reminiscence as to Roger, for Baker knew
more about it than that. When Roger's scalp had been laid bare by a
fall, Miss Madeline had chanced to see it, and had fainted; but Miss
Madeline was not fainting now. Baker knew all about it, almost better
than Lady Staveley herself. It was of very little use talking to
Baker about Roger the groom. Baker thought that Mr. Felix Graham
was a very nice young man, in spite of his "not being exactly
handsomelike about the physgognomy," as she remarked to one of the
younger maids, who much preferred Peregrine Orme.

Coming awa