“I think you misunderstand me, Bell.  I mean that it would have been an excellent marriage, provided you had both loved each other.”

“No, I don’t misunderstand you.  Of course it would be an excellent marriage, if we loved each other.  You might say the same if I loved the butcher or the baker.  What you mean is, that it makes a reason for loving him.”

“I don’t think I did mean that.”

“Then you mean nothing.”

After that, there were again some minutes of silence during which Dr Crofts got up to go away.  “You have scolded me very dreadfully,” he said, with a slight smile, “and I believe I have deserved it for interfering.”

“No; not at all for interfering.”

“But at any rate you must forgive me before I go.”

“I won’t forgive you at all, unless you repent of your sins, and alter altogether the wickedness of your mind.  You will become very soon as bad as Dr Gruffen.”

“Shall I?”

“Oh, but I will forgive you; for after all, you are the most generous man in the world.”

“Oh, yes; of course I am.  Well,—­good-bye.”

“But, Dr Crofts, you should not suppose others to be so much more worldly than yourself.  You do not care for money so very much—­”

“But I do care very much.”

“If you did, you would not come here for nothing day after day.”

“I do care for money very much.  I have sometimes nearly broken my heart because I could not get opportunities of earning it.  It is the best friend that a man can have—­”

“Oh, Dr Crofts!”

“—­the best friend that a man can have, if it be honestly come by.  A woman can hardly realise the sorrow which may fall upon a man from the want of such a friend.”

“Of course a man likes to earn a decent living by his profession; and you can do that.”

“That depends upon one’s ideas of decency.”

“Ah! mine never ran very high.  I’ve always had a sort of aptitude for living in a pigsty;—­a clean pigsty, you know, with nice fresh bean straw to lie upon.  I think it was a mistake when they made a lady of me.  I do, indeed.”

“I do not,” said Dr Crofts.

“That because you don’t quite know me yet.  I’ve not the slightest pleasure in putting on three different dresses a day.  I do it very often because it comes to me to do it, from the way in which we have been taught to live.  But when we get to Guestwick I mean to change all that; and if you come in to tea, you’ll see me in the same brown frock that I wear in the morning,—­unless, indeed, the morning work makes the brown frock dirty.  Oh, Dr Crofts! you’ll have it pitch-dark riding home under the Guestwick elms.”

“I don’t mind the dark,” he said; and it seemed as though he hardly intended to go even yet.

“But I do,” said Bell, “and I shall ring for candles.”  But he stopped her as she put her hand out to the bell-pull.