“That made him ten times worse an idiot.  He knelt down before her, and implored her to look at him.  I reminded him how all the island would rise against him—­worse than it did against you, Martin—­and he declared he did not care a fig for the island!  I asked him how he would face the Careys, and the Brocks, and the De Saumarez, and all the rest of them, and he snapped his fingers at them all.  Oh, he must be going out of his mind.”

I shook my head.  Knowing him as thoroughly as a long and close study could help me to know any man, I was less surprised than Julia, who had only seen him from a woman’s point of view, and had always been lenient to his faults.  Unfortunately, I knew my father too well.

“Then I talked to him about the duty he owed to our family name,” she resumed, “and I went so far as to remind him of what I had done to shield him and it from disgrace, and he mocked at it—­positively mocked at it!  He said there was no sort of parallel.  It would be no dishonor to our house to receive Kate into it, even if they were married at once.  What did it signify to the world that only three months had elapsed?  Besides, he did not mean to marry her for a month to come, as the house would need beautifying for her—­beautifying for her!  Neither had he spoken of it to you; but he had no doubt you would be willing to go on as you have done.”

“Never!” I said.

“I was sure not,” continued Julia.  “I told him I was convinced you would leave Guernsey again, but he pooh-poohed that.  I asked him how he was to live without any practice, and he said his old patients might turn him off for a while, but they would be glad to send for him again.  I never saw a man so obstinately bent upon his own ruin.”

“Julia,” I said, “I shall leave Guernsey before this marriage can come off.  I would rather break stones on the highway than stay to see that woman in my mother’s place.  My mother disliked her from the first.”

“I know it,” she replied, with tears in her eyes, “and I thought it was nothing but prejudice.  It was my fault, bringing her to Guernsey.  But I could not bear the idea of her coming as mistress here.  I said so distinctly.  ‘Dr. Dobree,’ I said, ’you must let me remind you that the house is mine, though you have paid me no rent for years.  If you ever take Kate Daltrey into it, I will put my affairs into a notary’s hands.  I will, upon my word, and Julia Dobree never broke her word yet.’  That brought him to his senses better than any thing.  He turned very pale, and sat down beside Kate, hardly knowing what to say.  Then she began.  She said if I was cruel, she would be cruel too.  Whatever grieved you, Martin, would grieve me, and she would let her brother Richard Foster know where Olivia was.”

“Does she know where she is?” I asked, eagerly, in a tumult of surprise and hope.

“Why, in Sark, of course,” she replied.

“What!  Did you never know that Olivia left Sark before my mother’s death?” I said, with a chill of disappointment.  “Did I never tell you she was gone, nobody knows where?”