He laughed:  “Nothing serious,” he said.  “Polly is half Bates, so she will marry in a year or two, while Adam is all Bates, so he will remain steady as the Rock of Ages, and strictly on the job.  Go have your good time, and if I possibly can, I’ll come after you.”

“You’ll do nothing of the kind,” said Nancy Ellen, with finality.  “You wouldn’t leave your patients, and you couldn’t leave dear Mrs. Southey.”

“If you feel that way about it, why do you leave me?” he asked.

“To show the little fool I’m not afraid of her, for one thing,” said Nancy Ellen with her head high.  She was very beautiful in her smart travelling dress, while her eyes flashed as she spoke.  The doctor looked at her approvingly.

“Good!” he cried.  “I like a plucky woman!  Go to have a good time, Nancy Ellen; but don’t go for that.  I do wish you would believe that there isn’t a thing the matter with the little woman, she’s —­ "

“I can go even farther than that,” said Nancy Ellen, dryly.  “I know ‘there isn’t a thing the matter with the little woman,’ except that she wants you to look as if you were running after her.  I’d be safe in wagering a thousand dollars that when she hears I’m gone, she will send for you before to-morrow evening.”

“You may also wager this,” he said.  “If she does, I shall be very sorry, but I’m on my way to the country on an emergency call.  Nancy Ellen, I wish you wouldn’t!”

“Wouldn’t go North, or wouldn’t see what every other living soul in Hartley sees?” she asked curtly.  Then she stepped inside to put on her hat and gloves.

Kate looked at the doctor in dismay.  “Oh, Robert!” she said.

“I give you my word of honour, Kate,” he said.  “If Nancy Ellen only would be reasonable, the woman would see shortly that my wife is all the world to me.  I never have been, and never shall be, untrue to her.  Does that satisfy you?”

“Of course,” said Kate.  “I’ll do all in my power to talk Nancy Ellen out of that, on this trip.  Oh, if she only had children to occupy her time!”

“That’s the whole trouble in a nutshell,” said the doctor; “but you know there isn’t a scarcity of children in the world.  Never a day passes but I see half a dozen who need me, sorely.  But with Nancy Ellen, no child will do unless she mothers it, and unfortunately, none comes to her.”

“Too bad!” said Kate.  “I’m so sorry!”

“Cheer her up, if you can,” said the doctor.

An hour later they were speeding north, Nancy Ellen moody and distraught, Kate as frankly delighted as any child.  The spring work was over; the crops were fine; Adam would surely have the premium wheat to take to the County Fair in September; he would work unceasingly for his chance with corn; he and Polly would be all right; she could see Polly waiting in the stable yard while Adam unharnessed and turned out the horse.