“Did you find them all well?”

“I only saw one.  The other two were out”

“Mrs Dale, was it?”

“No; it was Lily.”

“Sitting alone, thinking of her fine London lover, of course?  I suppose we ought to look upon her as a very lucky girl.  I have no doubt she thinks herself so.”

“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Johnny.

“I believe he’s a very good young man,” said the doctor; “but I can’t say I quite liked his manner.”

“I should think not,” said Johnny.

“But then in all probability he did not like mine a bit better, or perhaps yours either.  And if so it’s all fair.”

“I don’t see that it’s a bit fair.  He’s a snob,” said Eames; “and I don’t believe that I am.”  He had taken a glass or two of the earl’s “severe Falernian,” and was disposed to a more generous confidence, and perhaps also to stronger language, than might otherwise have been the case.

“No; I don’t think he is a snob,” said Crofts.  “Had he been so, Mrs Dale would have perceived it.”

“You’ll see,” said Johnny, touching up the earl’s horse with energy as he spoke.  “You’ll see.  A man who gives himself airs is a snob; and he gives himself airs.  And I don’t believe he’s a straight-forward fellow.  It was a bad day for us all when he came among them at Allington.”

“I can’t say that I see that.”

“I do.  But mind, I haven’t spoken a word of this to any one.  And I don’t mean.  What would be the good?  I suppose she must marry him now?”

“Of course she must.”

“And be wretched all her life.  Oh-h-h-h!” and he muttered a deep groan.  “I’ll tell you what it is, Crofts.  He is going to take the sweetest girl out of this country that ever was in it, and he don’t deserve her.”

“I don’t think she can be compared to her sister,” said Crofts slowly.

“What; not Lily?” said Eames, as though the proposition made by the doctor were one that could not hold water for a minute.

“I have always thought that Bell was the more admired of the two,” said Crofts.

“I’ll tell you what,” said Eames.  “I have never yet set my eyes on any human creature whom I thought so beautiful as Lily Dale.  And now that beast is going to marry her!  I’ll tell you what, Crofts; I’ll manage to pick a quarrel with him yet.”  Whereupon the doctor, seeing the nature of the complaint from which his companion was suffering, said nothing more, either about Lily or about Bell.

Soon after this Eames was at his own door, and was received there by his mother and sister with all the enthusiasm due to a hero.  “He has saved the earl’s life!” Mrs Eames had exclaimed to her daughter on reading Lord De Guest’s note.  “Oh, goodness!” and she threw herself back upon the sofa almost in a fainting condition.

“Saved Lord De Guest’s life!” said Mary.

“Yes—­under Providence,” said Mrs Eames, as though that latter fact added much to her son’s good deed.