“You have made me feel very uncomfortable, Doctor,” replied Mrs. Pullen. “Of course if I had known all this previously, I would not have cultivated Miss Brandt’s acquaintance, and now I shall take your advice and drop her as soon as possible! There will be no difficulty with Miss Leyton, for she has had a strange dislike to the girl ever since we met, but she has certainly been very kind to my baby—”
“For Heaven’s sake don’t let her come near your baby any more!” cried Doctor Phillips, quickly.
“Certainly I will not, and perhaps it would be as well if we moved on to Ostende or Blankenburghe, as we have sometimes talked of doing. It would sever the acquaintance in the most effectual way!”
“By all means do so, particularly if the young lady does not go to Brussels, as that stout party was proposing at dinner time. What an extraordinary person she appears to be! Quite a character!”
“That is just what she is! But, Doctor, there is another thing I should like to speak to you about, concerning Miss Brandt, and I am sure I may trust you to receive it in the strictest confidence. It is regarding my brother-in-law, Ralph Pullen. I am rather afraid, from one or two things I have observed, that he likes Miss Brandt—O! I don’t mean anything particular, for (as you know) he is engaged to be married to Elinor Leyton and I don’t suspect him of wronging her, only—young men are rather headstrong you know and fond of their own way, and perhaps if you were to speak to Ralph—”
“Tell me plainly, has he been carrying on with this girl?”
“Not in the sense you would take it, Doctor, but he affects her company and that of the Gobellis a good deal. Miss Brandt sings beautifully, and Ralph loves music, but his action annoys Elinor, I can see that, and since you think we should break off the intimacy——”
“I consider it most imperatively necessary, for many reasons, and especially in the case of a susceptible young man like Captain Pullen. She has money, you say—”
“Fifteen hundred a year, so I am told!”
“And Miss Leyton has nothing, and Ralph only his pay! O! yes! you are quite right, such an acquaintanceship is dangerous for him. The sense of honour is not so strong now, as it was when I was a boy, and gold is a powerful bait with the rising generation. I will take an early opportunity of talking to Captain Pullen on the subject.”