Here he touched his little pony’s head with the whip, and, before Mrs. Jenkins could utter a word of either astonishment or interest, had turned the corner and was out of sight.

The fashionable disease of nerves had not yet become an epidemic at Northbury, and Dr. Morris was a little puzzled at the symptoms which his great patient exhibited.  He was proud to speak of Mrs. Bertram as his “great patient,” and told her to her face in rather a fulsome manner that he considered it the highest possible honor to attend her.  He ordered his favorite tonic of cod liver oil, told her to stay in bed, and keep on low diet, and, having pocketed his fee drove away.

Mrs. Bertram was outwardly very civil to the Northbury doctor, but when he departed she scolded Catherine and Mabel for having sent for him, tore up his prescription, wrote one for herself, which she sent to the chemist to have made up, and desired Catherine to give her a glass of port wine from one of a treasured few bottles of a rare vintage which she had brought with her to Rosendale.

“It was a few days after her visit to the Meadowsweets that Mrs. Bertram had been taken ill.  She soon became quite well again, and then rather astonished Catherine by telling her that she had herself seen Beatrice Meadowsweet; that she had found her daughter’s judgment with regard to her to be apparently correct, and that, in consequence, she did not object to Beatrice visiting at the Manor.

“You may make Miss Meadowsweet your friend,” she said to both girls.  “She may come here, and you may sometimes go to see her.  But remember, she is the only Northbury young lady I will admit into my society.”

A few days afterwards, Loftus, who had again managed to obtain leave of absence from his military duties, reappeared on the scenes.  As has been seen, Loftus would admit of no restrictions with regard to his acquaintances, and after the remarkable fashion of some young men, he tried to secure an interest in the affections of Beatrice by flirting with Matty Bell.

Mrs. Bertram knew nothing of these iniquities on the part of her son.  It never entered even into her wildest dreams that any son or daughter of her could associate with people of the stamp of the Bells.  Even had she been aware of it, however, she knew better than to try to coerce her captain.

She had quite worries enough of her own, poor woman, and not the least of them, in the eyes of the girls, was the fresh mania she took for saving.  Meals had never been too plentiful at Rosendale.  Now, the only remark that could be made in their favor was that they satisfied hunger.  Healthy girls will eat any wholesome food, and when Loftus was not at home, Catherine and Mabel Bertram made their breakfast off porridge.