“Yes; her mother too, as I dare say you will see.”
“You will allow Mrs Enderby to choose her own medical attendant, I presume?”
“Oh, yes: and I have no doubt she will choose me. Mrs Rowland says so.”
“Here comes a gentleman with whom I want to speak,” said Philip, seeing Mr Grey approaching from a distance. “He is as warm a friend and admirer of Mr Hope as I am; and—”
“Mr Hope married into his family,—did not he?”
“Yes; but Mr Grey and Mr Hope were friends long before either of them was acquainted with Mrs Hope. The friendship between the gentlemen was more likely to have caused the marriage than the marriage the friendship.”
“Ah! that does happen sometimes, I know.”
“What I was going to say is this, Mr Walcot, that Mr Hope’s friends have determined to see justice done him; and that if, in the prosecution of this design, you should imagine that you are remarkably coolly treated,—by myself, for instance,—you must remember that I fairly warned you from the beginning that I shall give no countenance to any one who comes knowingly to establish himself on the ruins of a traduced man’s reputation. You will remember this, Mr Walcot.”
“Oh, certainly. I am sure I shall expect nothing from anybody; for nobody here knows me. It is only through Mrs Rowland’s kindness that I have any prospect here at all.”
“I will just give you one more warning, as you seem a very young man. The Deerbrook people are apt to be extremely angry when they are angry at all. What would you think of it, if they should break your windows, as they broke Mr Hope’s last night, when they find that you have been thriving upon his practice, while they were under a mistake concerning him which you were fully informed of?”