"She is a fashionable woman! Did you not expect it?"
"I feared it—but I blame Dr. G——, for had he not have proposed it, I think Anna would have kept the poor little thing with her. He says, too, that she must journey to confirm her health."
"He knows his patient," said Mr. Lawrence.
"You are severe, my dear husband."
"Do you think so?—but time will show. Meantime I am going to take you a journey."
"Me! where?"
"To Fryburg. Business calls me there next week—I shall be absent from home but few days, and the excursion will do you good. Be it as it may with Mrs. North, change of air and scene are really necessary for you."
"But the children?" said Mrs. Lawrence.
"I have provided for them," said Mr. Lawrence. "Nurse Bevey has promised to come and take care of them during our absence?"
"Well, since you have arranged it all," said Mrs. Lawrence, "do propose to Alpheus that he and Anna accompany us. It may suffice,—and prevent them from taking one of those long journies that I begin to dread."