say, that she thought it a great pity the general should
continue to suffer this agony, which she felt assured must be positively
dangerous, and modestly ventured to suggest that she should be allowed
to undo the bandage and relieve the pressure.

"Dear me," said Mrs. Melwyn, in a harried, frightened way, "could you
venture? Suppose you should do mischief; better wait, perhaps."

"Easily said, ma'am," cried the general. "It's not your arm that's
aching as if it would drop from your body, that's plain. What's that
you're saying, Miss Arnold?"

"If you could trust me to do it, I was saying; if you would give me
leave, I would undo the bandage and endeavor to make it more
comfortable. I am afraid that this pain and tight binding may bring on
positive inflammation. I really should not be afraid to try; I have seen
Mrs. Randall do it hundreds of times. There is no difficulty in it."

"Dear Lettice, how you talk!" said Mrs. Melwyn, as if she were afraid
Randall was behind the door. "No difficulty! How could Randall bear to
hear you say so?"

"I don't know, ma'am; perhaps she would contradict me. But I think at
all events there is no difficulty that I could not manage."

"Well, then, for Heaven's sake, try, child!" cried the general; "for
really the pain is as if all the dogs in Hockley were gnawing at it.
Come along; do something, for the love of--"

He suffered Lettice to help him off with his coat, and to undo the
bandage, which she accomplished very handily; and then observed that
Mrs. Randall, in her haste to depart upon her visit, had bound up the
wound in a most careless manner; and the irritation had already produced
so serious an inflammation that she was quite alarmed, and suggested
that the doctor should be sent for.

The general swore at the idea of the doctor, and yet more violently at
that old hag Randall's confounded carelessness. Mrs. Melwyn looked
miserable; she saw the case was bad, and yet she knew that to send for
the doctor, and take it out of Randall's hands, would be an insult never
to be forgiven.

But Lettice was steady. She was not quite ignorant in these matters, and
she felt it her duty to be firm. She expostulated and remonstrated, and
was just carrying her point when Mrs. Randall came home; and, having
heard below how things were going on, hurried, uncalled for, into the
dining-room.

She came in in a mighty pucker, as she would herself have called it, and
began asking who had dared t