"Why, doctor!" she exclaimed, rather confused. "You are the last person I should have expected to meet here."
"Well, it is not very often I am to be seen in the Burlington," he replied; "but as it happened to lie on my way, I am strolling through it."
"And I," she said, with a laugh, "have been calling on my bootmaker."
"I have not seen you since you left the hospital, Miss Riley."
She saw that he glanced with some surmise at her fashionable and expensive attire, so different from the simple dress of the hospital nurse he had always been accustomed to see her in. It might prove inconvenient to her, at some future time, were this man to entertain any suspicions as to her mode of living, so she said, with a pretty attempt at a bashful smile, "You must not call me Miss Riley now, Dr. Duncan. I have changed my name."
"Let me congratulate you? May I ask by what name I am to call you for the future?"
"Well I have changed my name and yet not changed it—I am Mrs. Riley—I have married a cousin. But, doctor! I am so glad to have met you, I am anxious to know how poor Mary Grimm is now. Have you heard from your sister lately?"
"I am very glad to have good news to tell you, Mrs. Riley. I saw Miss Grimm yesterday. Her health is certainly improving very rapidly. I am looking forward to her complete recovery, at an early date."
"Ah! you saw her yesterday; did she say whether her aunt had been there lately?"