"In general I am, but I have had a most fortunate lazy fit to-day."
"Why, Loo," said her sister, "I don't know how you always come to know everything. I should not know in the least when Dr. Brunton was likely to be in or out."
"That's different," said Loo: "I'm intimate with the doctor."
"We called," said Lady Helen, feeling that the visit needed to be accounted for in some shape, and that her sister was in the humor for speaking nonsense—"we called to see Miss Brunton: we thought we should like to know her."
"Dr. Brunton," said Lady Louisa, "the truth is I came to see your house. I was curious, and I like to gratify myself. I don't see why your house should not be open to inspection as well as ours: ours is open to the public two days a week all summer—Wednesdays and Saturdays, I think—and it is a great nuisance. Have you ever been through it? If not, I shall be happy to be your guide any day: if every person were as sick of it as I am, fewer would come to see it."
"Sick of it, are you?" said the doctor.
"Yes, sick. It's just like a well-organized prison, with papa for jailer—an upright, humane man, no doubt, but always feeling responsible for his prisoners, and giving them very little indulgence."
"Loo," said Lady Helen, "you talk nonsense.—You must not believe all she says, Dr. Brunton."
"You want to see my house?" he said. "Why do you want to see it?"
"Why do you not want to see ours?" said Lady Louisa.