Would it,--would it really come to that, that Mrs.
Stantiloup should have altogether conquered him in the combat that had
sprung up between them?

But yet he would not give up Mrs. Peacocke. Indeed, circumstanced as he
was, he could not give her up. He had promised not only her, but her
absent husband, that until his return there should be a home for her in
the school-house. There would be a cowardice in going back from his word
which was altogether foreign to his nature. He could not bring himself to
retire from the fight, even though by doing so he might save himself from
the actual final slaughter which seemed to be imminent. He thought only
of making fresh attacks upon his enemy, instead of meditating flight from
those which were made upon him. As a dog, when another dog has got him
well by the ear, thinks not at all of his own wound, but only how he may
catch his enemy by the lip, so was the Doctor in regard to Mrs.
Stantiloup. When the two Clifford boys were taken away, he took some joy
to himself in remembering that Mr. Stantiloup could not pay his butcher's
bill.

Then, just at the end of the holidays, some good-natured friend sent to
him a copy of 'Everybody's Business.' There is no duty which a man owes to
himself more clearly than that of throwing into the waste-paper basket,
unsearched and even unopened, all newspapers sent to him without a
previously-declared purpose. The sender has either written something
himself which he wishes to force you to read, or else he has been desirous
of wounding you by some ill-natured criticism upon yourself. 'Everybody's
Business' was a paper which, in the natural course of things, did not find
its way into the Bowick Rectory; and the Doctor, though he was no doubt
acquainted with the title, had never even looked at its columns. It was
the purpose of the periodical to amuse its readers, as its name declared,
with the private affairs of their neighbours. It went boldly about its
work, excusing itself by the assertion that Jones was just as well
inclined to be talked about as Smith was to hear whatever could be said
about Jones. As both parties were served, what could be the objection?
It was in the main good-natured, and probably did most frequently gratify
the Joneses, while it afforded considerable amusement to the listless and
numerous Smiths of the world. If you can't read and understand Jones's
speech in Parliament, you may at any rate have mind enough to i