Every tear was like a drop of blood from Christopher’s heart.  “Pray don’t scold her, sir,” said he, ready to snivel himself.  “She meant nothing unkind:  it is only her pretty sprightly way; and she did not really imagine a love so reverent as mine”—­

“Don’t you interfere between my father and me,” said this reasonable young lady, now in an ungovernable state of feminine irritability.

“No, Rosa,” said Christopher, humbly.  “Mr. Lusignan,” said he, “I hope you will tell her that, from the very first, I was unwilling to enter on this subject with her.  Neither she nor I can forget my double character.  I have not said half as much to her as I ought, being her physician; and yet you see I have said more than she can bear from me, who, she knows, love her and revere her.  Then, once for all, do pray let me put this delicate matter into your hands:  it is a case for parental authority.”

“Unfatherly tyranny, that means,” said Rosa.  “What business have gentlemen interfering in such things?  It is unheard of.  I will not submit to it, even from papa.”

“Well, you need not scream at me,” said Mr. Lusignan; and he shrugged his shoulders to Staines.  “She is impracticable, you see.  If I do my duty, there will be a disturbance.”

Now this roused the bile of Dr. Staines.  “What, sir!” said he, “you could separate her and me by your authority, here in this very room; and yet, when her life is at stake, you abdicate!  You could part her from a man who loved her with every drop of his heart,—­and she said she loved him, or, at all events, preferred him to others,—­and you cannot part her from a miserable corset, although you see in her poor wasted face that it is carrying her to the churchyard.  In that case, sir, there is but one thing for you to do,—­withdraw your opposition and let me marry her.  As her lover I am powerless; but invest me with a husband’s authority, and you will soon see the roses return to her cheek, and her elastic figure expanding, and her eye beaming with health and the happiness that comes of perfect health.”

Mr. Lusignan made an answer neither of his hearers expected.  He said, “I have a great mind to take you at your word.  I am too old and fond of quiet to drive a Simpleton in single harness.”

This contemptuous speech, and, above all, the word Simpleton, which had been applied to her pretty freely by young ladies at school, and always galled her terribly, inflicted so intolerable a wound on Rosa’s vanity, that she was ready to burst:  on that, of course, her stays contributed their mite of physical uneasiness.  Thus irritated mind and body, she burned to strike in return; and as she could not slap her father in the presence of another, she gave it Christopher back-handed.