be troubling you to-day; and, indeed, I 'm ashamed to say I never
asked you how the pains were?"

"I might be better, and I might be worse, ma'am," was the qualified
reply; and again came a pause.

"Tony was saying the other day, doctor," resumed she, "that if you will
try a touch of what he calls the white oils."

"I 'm very much obliged to him, Mrs. Butler; he put a touch of the same
white oils on my pony one day, and the beast that was always a lamb
before just kicked me over his head when I got into the saddle."

"You forget, doctor, you are not a beast of burden yourself."

"We 're all beasts of burden, ma'am,--all of us,--even the best, if
there be any best! heavy laden wi' our sins, and bent down wi' our
transgressions. No, no," added he, with a slight asperity, "I 'll have
none of his white oils."

"Well, you know the proverb, doctor, 'He that winna use the means must
bear the moans.'"

"'T is a saying that hasna much sense in it," said the doctor, crankily;
"for who's to say when the means is blessed?"

Here was a point that offered so wide a field for discussion that the
old lady did not dare to make a rejoinder.

"I 'll be going to Derry to-morrow, Mrs. Butler," resumed he, "if I can
be of any service to you."

"Going to Derry, doctor? that's a long road for you!"

"So it is, ma'am; but I'm going to fetch back my dochter Dolly; she's to
come by the packet to-morrow evening."

"Dolly coming home! How is that? You did not expect her, did you?"

"Not till I got her letter this morning; and that's what made me come
over to ask if Tony had, maybe, told you something about how she was
looking, and what sort of spirits she seemed in; for her letter's very
short; only says, 'I 've got a kind of longing to be back again, dear
father; as the song says, "It's hame, and it's hame, and it's hame I
fain wad be;" and as I know well there will be an open heart and an open
door to greet me, I 'm off tonight for Liverpool.'"

"She 's a good girl, and whatever she does it will be surely for the
best," said the old lady.

"I know it well;" and he wiped his eyes as he spoke. "But I 'm sore
troubled to think it's maybe her health is breaking, and I wanted to ask
Tony about her. D' ye remember, ma'am, how he said she was looking?"

Now, if there was anything thoroughly repugnant to the old lady's
habits, it was untruthfulness; and yet, as Tony had not mentioned Dolly
since his return, her only escape was by a lit