‘But Roger,’ said her ladyship, half crying, or rather pretending to cry in vexation, ’what shall I do with the man?  How shall I get him out of the house?’

‘Put him under the pump,’ said the baronet; and he laughed his peculiar low guttural laugh, which told so plainly of the havoc which brandy had made in his throat.

’That’s nonsense, Roger; you know I can’t put him under the pump.  Now you are ill, and you’d better see him just for five minutes.  I’ll make it right with Dr Thorne.’

‘I’ll be d——­ if I do, my lady.’  All the people about Boxall Hill called poor Lady Scatcherd ‘my lady’ as if there was some excellent joke in it; and, so, indeed, there was.

’You know you needn’t mind nothing he says, nor yet take nothing he sends:  and I’ll tell him not to come no more.  Now do ’ee see him, Roger.’

But there was not coaxing Roger over now, indeed ever:  he was a wilful, headstrong, masterful man; a tyrant always though never a cruel one; and accustomed to rule his wife and household as despotically as he did his gangs of workmen.  Such men it is not easy to coax over.

’You go down and tell him I don’t want him, and won’t see him, and that’s an end of it.  If he chose to earn his money, why didn’t he come yesterday when he was sent for?  I’m well now, and don’t want him; and what’s more, I won’t have him.  Winterbones, lock the door.’

So Winterbones, who during this interview had been at work at his little table, got up to lock the door, and Lady Scatcherd had no alternative but to pass through it before the last edict was obeyed.

Lady Scatcherd, with slow step, went downstairs and again sought counsel with Hannah, and the two, putting their heads together, agreed that the only cure for the present evil was to found in a good fee.  So Lady Scatcherd, with a five-pound note in her hand, and trembling in every limb, went forth to encounter the august presence of Dr Fillgrave.

As the door opened, Dr Fillgrave dropped the bell-rope which was in his hand, and bowed low to the lady.  Those who knew the doctor well, would have known from his bow that he was not well pleased; it was as much as though he said, ’Lady Scatcherd, I am your most obedient servant; at any rate it appears that it is your pleasure to treat me as such.’

Lady Scatcherd did not understand all this; but she perceived at once that he was angry.

‘I hope Sir Roger does not find himself worse,’ said the doctor.  ’The morning is getting on; shall I step up and see him?’

’Hem! ha! oh!  Why, you see, Dr Fillgrave, Sir Roger finds hisself vastly better this morning, vastly so.’

’I’m very glad to hear it; but as the morning is getting on, shall I step up to see Sir Roger?’

’Why, Dr Fillgrave, sir, you see, he finds hisself so much hisself this morning, that he a’most thinks it would be a shame to trouble you.’