"Dr. Dickson, and you said you heard what I said. Oh! Paul."
"Well, I hear now, and I do not think I ever heard Doctor Dickson's name before."
"After that!" said Lady Lyons, throwing up her hands; "he was the only man—the only man who quite understood my constitution."
"Well, I'm sorry he is dead if he was useful to you, mother, but you have been no better and no worse ever since I can remember anything. Would you mind my leaving you for a moment? I am afraid Grace is not well."
He left her and went to find his wife.
Grace had recovered herself, and reproached him for making "a fuss."
"You know I am not strong," she said, "and easily sent up and down. I am like a shuttlecock, and sometimes, Paul, I feel that we are not as much alike as we thought."
"Now you have hurt and vexed me still more," he said, in a tone of real vexation. "What discoveries will you make next? In what way am I your inferior? I know in many ways I am, but in what particular am I wanting to-day?"
"My inferior!" said Grace, with sudden passion; "I feel beneath you in all things—in principle, in every thing."
She covered her face with her hands.