The doctor bent over and kissed her hand with affectionate gallantry. "Good-morning, Hygeia."
"Good-bye, sir."
"Till to-morrow. At the French Court, I believe, they say 'au revoir,'" he added, mischievously, while the girl smiled. Then Carroll strode off, with David at his heels, leaving Deborah alone at her favorite occupation, wondering a little, in an absent-minded way, over the unusual event that her somewhat eccentric mentor proposed to bring into her life.
Mr. Benedict Calvert, with the Trevor family clustered about him, stood, riding-whip in hand, in the portico of the manor, in front of which, on the driveway which curved out towards the river, were the two horses, Carroll's and his, held by one of the stable-boys. Mr. Calvert was laughing and talking blandly with Lucy and Sir Charles; but madam, with her elder daughter ami Vincent, stood a little to one side, and annoyance was very plainly readable in the face of the mistress of the house. The doctor, with a cheery smile, came briskly round the corner of the east wing. It took but one glance to tell him who had really called him from the still-room.
"Most puissant Lord Commissioner, behold me here at your command!" he cried, approaching his companion.
"A—Deborah is not with you?" observed Madam Antoinette rather uselessly.
"No. Shall I call her? I left her in the preparation of a little matter which I had requested of her. Pardon me. I did not know that I was taking her from—" he made as if to go after her, when Vincent interposed.
"Don't trouble, doctor. She will be only too glad to finish what you asked. Afterwards there will be time enough for the spinning, or the weaving, or whatever is necessary."
Carroll thanked the young man with a little glance, and began at once making his farewells. He perceived that the time for introducing the project of Deborah's visit on the morrow was eminently unpropitious. Mr. Calvert made graceful adieux to the ladies, lightly saluted the master of the house and the Governor's lieutenant, and leaped upon his animal. A moment more and the two were cantering away, side by side, still looking back to the portico. When they were at length hidden by the bend in the road, Madam Trevor turned to the two girls.
"Virginia and Lucy, go you both and overlook your wardrobes and the linen in the press, and think out what is needed that we may buy at the sale to-morrow. Deborah may help you when she comes in. Charles, you ride to town, do you not? And, Vincent, I would have a moment with you before you go to the fields."