im: possibly the earldom of Birndale had been founded in some such way;
and there it was. But the ancestors of Dr. Brunton had had neither the
boldness nor the originality for such a stroke; and there he was, in the
estimation of society at a very long distance indeed from equality with
the earl of Birndale. But the doctor shut his eyes to this answer to his
question, and began to let the tow of discretion go with the bucket of
hope.

"Well," said Miss Robertson when Miss Brunton and her brother got
home--"well, doctor, has the beauty the gypsy-woman spoke of asked you
to marry her yet?"

"I don't suppose ladies ever do that," said Mary, "but Lady Louisa
might, I am sure, if beauty may be a law to itself."

Seeing she got no answer from her host, Miss Robertson said, "And what
kind of an evening had you?"

"Very pleasant," said Mary: "they were good and kind, and the house is
well worth seeing, although, as a rule, I don't care for seeing
gentlemen's houses, they are all so much alike. Still, where there are
the gatherings of two or three hundred years, it is wonderfully
interesting."

The old woman at the lodge still lingered. Never was an old woman so
well looked after. Was she proud of the attention she got? did it
please her that a doctor and an earl's daughter should wait on her every
day? or had the nearness of the eternal world brought everything to its
level? It would depend on her natural temperament: there are people
whose vanity and self-love can be flattered at the grave's brink. She
lingered, and stuck to life like a beech leaf to the tree, which a
child's breath might almost blow to the ground. But she had weathered
the winter, and the days were stretching out again: it was almost the
end of March, with bright sunshine and an occasional softness in the
atmosphere that had a tinge of summer in it. As the doctor paid his
afternoon visit the sun's beams streamed in at the little window, and
hitting some of the tins hung on the wall for ornament, made a glory in
the room which caused Bell to yearn for out-door sunshine and the caller
air.

"Eh, doctor," she said, "do ye no think I might get the length of the
door, just to see how things are looking?"

"Hardly yet, I doubt," he was saying, knowing well that never more would
she walk to her own doorstep, when Lady Louisa came in.

"I have only time," she said to Bell, "to ask you how you are and run
home again, and I have not time to speak to you at al