The Colonel laughed heartily and was proceeding further to draw out his ingenuous guest, but Louise, visibly impatient, rose to leave the room.  She was chafing with shame and mortification.  Had she ever thought of becoming the wife of that man with his awkward manners and Connaught brogue?  Certainly she had never realised what it meant.  She could never look her brother in the face again if the idea of the engagement should dawn on him.  How could she escape it?  Carry it out she could not.  All her enthusiastic wish to spend her life in making this poor district better was now overshadowed by the unendurable thought of what her promise entailed.

Presently the Doctor came in alone, Colonel Eden having gone to write a letter he wished to send by late post.  He came forward at first gladly, then timidly, repelled by the girl’s cold expression as she stood by the fire in her long white dress.  She felt that her only chance of avoiding dangerous topics was in plunging into the subject of their mutual patients.

“Did Regan find you in time to bring you to his father?” she asked.

“He found me,” said the Doctor; “but I told him I couldn’t come before to-morrow as I was to dine here.  I thought there was no occasion for hurry.”

“But did he tell you how much depends on his father’s life?” said Louise, unconsciously glad to find something definite at which she might show displeasure.  “Do you not know of the unjust will he has made, and that if he dies now his son will be disinherited?”

“He was telling me about it, but there’s no danger of his dying yet awhile,” answered the Doctor, unaware of the gathering storm.  “That old man has a habit of dying; he was often like that before.”

“I thought it was your duty to go at once when you are told there is urgent necessity,” said Louise, with heightened colour; “and until now I thought it was your pleasure also.”

“I’d have gone quick enough, Miss Eden, if I’d known you were so anxious about it,” was the rather unfortunate reply; “and I’ll go now this minute if you wish me to.”

“My wishes are not in question,” said the girl, yielding to the irritation she felt against herself and against him; “but if you neglect the call of the dying on such a trivial plea as a dinner invitation, I do not think you are justified in holding the position you do.”

Colonel Eden at this moment came in, and the Doctor, feeling he had given offence, but rather puzzled as to the cause, asked at once that his car might be ordered, as he had to go and see a patient some way off.

“So late, and on such a dark night!” said the Colonel, good-naturedly; “surely he could wait till to-morrow.  Don’t you think so, Louise?”

“I have no opinion to give on the matter,” said his sister, coldly.

She was now really vexed by the young man’s quick obedience to what he interpreted to be her wish.  He had no sooner taken leave than she went to her room and burst into sobs of mortified pride and real perplexity.