s something disagreeably underhand in such a proceeding,"
objected Emma.

"You know that a doctor is, or ought to be, considered a sort of pope,"
returned Lawrence. "I absolve you from all guilt by assuring you that
there is urgent need for pursuing the course I suggest."

"Well, I will at all events do what I can to help you," said Emma.
"Shall I find her in her own room?"

"Yes, in bed, attended, with Mrs Stoutley's permission, by Susan Quick.
Get rid of the maid before entering on the subject."

In a few minutes Emma returned to the Doctor, who still walked up and
down in earnest conversation with Lewis. She had succeeded, she said,
in persuading Nita to let her father be sent for, and the place to which
he had gone for a few days was Saxon, in the Rhone valley. The Count's
address had also been obtained, but Nita had stipulated that the
messenger should on no account disturb her father by entering the house,
but should send for him and wait outside.

"Strange prohibition!" exclaimed Lawrence. "However, we must send off a
messenger without delay."

"Stay," said Lewis, detaining his friend; "there seems to be delicacy as
well as mystery connected with this matter, you must therefore allow me
to be the messenger."

Lawrence had no objection to the proposal, and in less than an hour
Lewis, guided by Antoine Grennon, was on the road to Martigny by way of
the celebrated pass of the Tete-Noire.

The guide was one of Nature's gentlemen. Although low in the social
scale, and trained in a rugged school, he possessed that innate
refinement of sentiment and feeling--a gift of God sometimes transmitted
through a gentle mother--which makes a true gentleman. Among men of the
upper ranks this refinement of soul may be counterfeited by the
superficial polish of manners; among those who stand lower in the social
scale it cannot be counterfeited at all, but still less can it be
concealed. As broadcloth can neither make nor mar a true gentleman, so
fustian cannot hide one. If Antoine Grennon had been bred "at Court,"
and arrayed in sumptuous apparel, he could not have been more
considerate than he was of the feelings and wishes of others, or more
gentle, yet manly, in his demeanour.

If, on an excursion, you wished to proceed in a certain direction,
Antoine never suggested that you should go in another, unless there were
insurmountable difficulties in the way. If you chanced to grow weary,
you could not have asked A