t to
him that tiny morsel of a hand which laboured so hard and constantly,
said--what did Nettie say? how many times had the doctor conned it over
as he went between his patients?--"You were angry once, and, indeed,
I don't wonder." The doctor went boldly in under the cordial of these
simple words. If she did not wonder that he was angry once, could she
think of saying over again that same conclusion which had cast him into
such wrathful despair? He went in to try his fortune a second time,
secure of his temper at least. _That_ could never fail, nor sin against
Nettie again.

Edward Rider went in, expectant somehow, even against his reason, to
find an altered world in that house from which Fred had gone. He knew
better, to be sure, but nature beguiled the young man out of his
wisdom. When he went in to the parlour his eyes were opened. Upon the
sofa--that same sofa where Fred had lain, all slovenly and mean in his
idleness, with his pipe, polluting Nettie's sole retirement--Mrs Fred
lay now in her sombre black dress, with the white cap circling her faded
face. She had her white handkerchief in her hand, and was carefully
arranged upon the sofa, with a chair placed near for sympathisers. At
the table, working rapidly as usual, sat Nettie. Sometimes she turned
a momentary glance of mingled curiosity and wonder upon her sister.
Evidently she did not interfere with this development of sorrow. Nettie
had enough to do, besides, with her needlework, and to enjoin a moderate
amount of quietness upon Freddy and his little sister, who were building
wooden bricks into houses and castles on the floor by her side. When the
doctor entered the room he saw how it was with instantaneous insight.
Mrs Fred was sitting in state, in the pomp of woe, to receive all the
compassionate people who might come to condole with her. Nettie, half
impatient, half glad that her sister could amuse herself so, sat in busy
toleration, putting up with it, carrying on her own work through it
all--and still, as always, those bonds of her own making closed hard and
tenacious upon the prop of the house. Even the chance of speaking with
her by herself died off into extreme distance. Young Rider, who came in
with the full conviction that anger could never more rise in his heart
against Nettie, grew pale with passion, resentment, and impatience before
he had been a minute in the room. Always the same! Not relieved out
of her bondage--closer bound and prisoned tha