"Well, Princess!" said the cheery old medico; "for since I have made you hear I may as well address you by your title--well, Princess, how goes it?"
"It goes very well indeed, dear Dr. Osborne," said Marian, returning his hand-pressure. "But why Princess?"
"Why Princess! What lower rank could a girl be who lives in a palace, over there, I mean, with 'vassals and slaves by her side,' as I've heard my girl sing years ago, and all that kind of thing?"
"But surely only a princess of the Cinderella style, my dear doctor; only enjoying the vassals and the slaves, and what you call 'that kind of thing,' for a very limited time. Twelve o'clock must strike very soon, dear old friend, in our case, and then this princess will go back to the pots and kettles, and cinder-sifting, and a state of life worse than ever she has known before."
"God forbid, my dear!" said the doctor seriously. "Which way are you going--back again to Woolgreaves? All right. I'm driving that road, and I'll set you down at the gates. Jump in, child. I wanted a few minutes' talk with you, and this has just happened luckily; we can have it without any interruption."
He stretched out his hand and helped Marian into the seat by his side; then gave the brisk little pony his head, and they rattled cheerily along.
"Let me see, my dear, what was I saying?" said the doctor, after the silence of a few minutes. "By the way, I think I ought to have called in the village to see little Pickering, who's in for measles, I suspect. I must start a memorandum-book, my memory is beginning to fail me. What was I saying, my dear?"
"You were saying that you wanted to talk to me--about Woolgreaves, I think it must have been."
"About Woolgreaves--the palace, as I called it--oh yes, that was it. See here, child; I'm the oldest friend you have in the world, and I hope one of the truest; and I want you to answer my questions frankly, and without reserve, just as if I were your father, you know."
"I will do so," said Marian, after a faint flutter at her heart, caused by the notion of the little doctor, good little soul as he was, comparing himself with her dead father.