face, which was small and wrinkled,
and a black ribbon bound round her head, as the fashion used to be. A
basket with some pins and tapes in it served as a kind of apology for
her visit.

When she saw the doctor she said, "Maybe ye wad tak some preens frae a
puir auld body that can neither work nor want?"

She spoke in a thin, shaky voice, and Dr. Brunton's compassion was
moved. "Do you belong to this district?" he asked.

"'Deed, div I, sir. Eh, but auld age and poverty are ill neighbors!"

"You ought to be looked after: have you ever applied for relief?"

"Frae the parish? Na, nane o' our family hae come to that yet, let me be
thankfu', and I'll mak a fend without it."

"Then how do you live?"

"Ye may say that. Whiles the young leddies at the castle gie me a pickle
tea or the like--that's the youngest ane, her they ca' Leddy Louisa:
she's just an angel o' licht. Eh, if a' body was like her!"

"I'll inquire into your case and see that something is done for your
comfort."

"Oh, mony thanks, sir! I'm no very able noo to travel wi' the basket.
Eh, what time does! Little did I think I wad ever come to this."

The doctor dropped a shilling into her hand, which, cased in a
carefully-mended big coarse worsted glove, she held out: when she saw
what she had got she bowed her head, overcome with thankfulness, and
passed on.

The doctor resumed his watch, and in a little he was rewarded: Lady
Louisa came in.

"If I had not promised Bell to look in again," she said, "I would not
have been here. See, there's your shilling. If I worked as hard for my
money as you do, I would not give it to every impostor: I don't do it,
as it is."

"I don't understand," he said.

"You gave a shilling to an old woman at the door?"

"Yes: was _she_ an impostor?"

"Rank," said Lady Louisa; and she pulled a cap from her pocket, put it
on her head, drew it close round her face, which she threw into age and
wrinkles with marvelous effect, and looked at the doctor, shaking her
head like the pearled old woman.

"Didn't I give myself a high character?" she said, laughing.

"It was the truth," the doctor said--"nothing but the truth."

"The whole truth, and just a little more, don't you think?"

VII.

Shortly after, as the Ladies Moor were walking through the village, Lady
Louisa said to her sister suddenly, "I'm going to call at the doctor's
house."

"Why?" said Lady Helen.

"I want to see what it is like. It must be a quee