“‘You needn’t tell him anything.’
“Bell looked surprised, Jessie whistled, and Mattie laughed, as she walked downstairs to receive her visitor.
“‘I have only known you for half an hour, Miss Dora Freeman,’ Jessie said, saucily, ‘but if I am any judge of the genus female-homo, you are desperately in love with that man, and are jealous of somebody.’
“Bell shot at her a warning glance, which silenced her for a moment, and in the pause I distinctly caught the tones of Dr. West’s familiar voice, though I could distinguish nothing he said. He did not stay long, and the moment his step was heard in the hall Jessie was at her post at the window, ready to watch him as he went down the walk. I think Bell wanted to look out, but she was far too proud, and in spite of Jessie’s entreaties that she would come just for a minute and say if she ever saw a more perfectly splendid man, she sat where she was and waited for Mattie, who soon appeared, joining with Jessie in praises of Dr. West. The most agreeable person she had ever met, she said, and she wondered I had not told them about him.
“I was so unamiable that I would not even ask when he came to Morrisville, nor why he had called; but Jessie asked for me, and so I learned that he arrived at his mother’s the night previously, and in compliance with Robin’s repeated request that some one should go for the lady, he had come himself. Robin was better, Mattie said, and if no new symptoms appeared the doctor would return to Beechwood the next day.
“All this while I asked no questions and volunteered no remark, though in my own mind I resolved that so soon as I was able, I would go to see Robin West. I suppose I was beginning to look tired, as Bell said they were worrying me too long, and, after some coaxing and scolding, she persuaded her sister to leave with her.
“‘Mind, now,’ Jessie said to me, as she stood with her hat poised on her short, thick curls, ‘if you are sure you do not like this doctor, and wish to be rid of him; I’ll take him off your hands, and thank you, too. I’ve a great mind to try the effect of my charms upon him: shall I? You see, I am not going to wait, like Bell, till I verge upon the serious yellow leaf. I am going to be married. Au revoir!’ and whistling ‘Hail to the Chief,’ she bounded down the stairs, three at a time, I verily believe, for I trembled lest she should break her neck, and felt relieved when her gay laugh sounded upon the walk.
“The next thing which I heard was that Dr. West was at Mr. Verner’s, prescribing for Jessie’s father, who had been taken violently ill.”
CHAPTER VIII.
JESSIE’S DIARY.
