"Good!" said the little doctor, bringing his hand down with a ringing slap on the chaise-apron, "I like that! Dry--deuced dry. Like your poor father, that. 'In their way.' Ha, ha I understand. Their way is not much yours?"
"They are very good-tempered and polite, and press one to eat and drink a great deal, and hand chairs and footstools, and always sing when they are asked. And," added Marian, after a moment's pause, and under a fear that she had been unduly cynical, "and they are most attentive and affectionate to mamma."
"I am delighted to hear that, for that's just as it should be, just as one would have wished it to turn out. Oh yes, quite ladies, with all the feelings and perceptions of ladies, and talking to your mother nicely, and so on. Not too bright--not to be compared with you or my girl. Ah, there would have been a companion for you, my dear; all soul, and such an arm for the harp, but married to the coastguard in Dorsetshire!--but still nice girls. Well, I'm glad you give me this account, my dear, for it suits exactly the suggestion I was about to make. But before I made it I wanted to be quite sure of your position at Woolgreaves, and to know for certain that you were liked by all the family."
"You are not certain of that yet, doctor. There is one of the family about whom you have made no inquiry."
"One of the family--at Woolgreaves? Oh, by Jove, Tom--Master Tom! I recollect now--a most important personage in his own esteem, and really some one to be thought of in such a matter as this. And how does Master Tom behave to you?"
"Like a--like a scoundrel!" cried Marian, her eyes flashing, and all the colour ablaze in her cheeks: "He has been, ever since we have been there, either rude and rough, or sulky and unpleasant; but to-day, just before I saw you, not an hour ago, he met me in the fields, and insulted me in the grossest manner; talked about our poverty, and hinted that--hinted----" and the remainder of the sentence was lost in a burst of tears.
"Happy hit of mine, that," muttered the doctor to himself. "I seem to be distinguishing myself to-day. Young ruffian, that Tom. He shall have a pretty dose next time I'm sent for to him, I'll take care.--Come, my dear, then, you must not mind; he's only a boy--a rude beastly boy, with no manners, and no heart either, and not much chest or stomach, for the matter of that. You must not mind him. It's a pity he's not nice to you, because he has a certain power in that house; and if he were to pronounce himself as decidedly in opposition to the little scheme I had in my mind, and about which I was going to talk to you, it is very probable it might fall to the ground. But there are various ways of getting over objectionable boys. Lord bless me! in my time I've taken boys into the surgery, and brought them round by a handful of acidulated drops, and have tamed the most refractory by a Tolu lozenge."
"I scarcely think that Tom Creswell is to be bought over on such easy terms," said Marian, with a faint and weary smile. "But, doctor, what was the suggestion you were about to make?"
"Simply this, my dear: That instead of your removing into Mrs. Swainson's lodgings, which are by no means suited for you, and where I should be very sorry to see you, or into any lodging at all, you should--when I say you, I mean, of course, you and Mrs. Ashurst--should remain at Woolgreaves."
"Remain at Woolgreaves? For how long?"