I was doing well, it seemed. It was nothing but a matter of time and patience. The worst of it was the shaking up, and for that, rest was all that was necessary.
I answered his pleasantries, asked him the news in town, and thanked him for what he had done, which, indeed, was not much. If I have given the impression that he was an ass, that was not at all how he impressed me. Though he persistently refused to talk sense, and turned everything I said into jest, I was ready enough to believe that he knew his business and stood well in the profession. I got little more than this however, for he soon left for a talk—likely a professional one, I imagined—with my hostess. This lasted till, after an early dinner, he left the house to be driven back to the station by Uncle Jerdon. Idle and bored as I was, while alone, I speculated upon his relations with Miss Fielding; but from what I had seen I could hardly regard him as a rival. Still, I knew well enough that one could not predicate from a man's appearance how women might like him. Doctor Copin would not be here in attendance, much less as a visitor, unless there was some value in him. He evidently knew the place well enough to have been at Midmeadows often. It made me, for no particular reason that I could name, uncomfortable.
It was still and warm, the beginning of the hush of twilight, the birds' chattering quieted, when voices came plainly up to me through the open window beside my bed. Miss Fielding and the doctor were coming round a corner of the house on their way to the stable.
"I wish when she comes, next time, you'd have Leah let me know," I heard Doctor Copin say earnestly.
"I won't promise to do that," was her reply.
"Why not?" he asked sharply.
"Why do you want to know?" she asked.
"You know well enough. You know how interested I am in her."
"I wish I did!"
This was the last I could make out, for they passed into the yard behind the house. I heard the carriage drive off, and soon after Miss Fielding's voice inside the house, calling for Leah to come down. I thought that I detected a strain of excitement, even of alarm in her tones.