eral--I will arrange everything," said his
wife caressingly. "Go over to the window again and leave me to speak to
Doctor Middlemass for a moment;" and, as the General retired, still
growling, she half smiled, and raised her eyes to the doctor's face as
if she invited sympathy.

But Doctor Middlemass looked as unresponsive as a block of wood.

"I must go to my patient," he said, "It was to see him, I presume, that
I was summoned?"

"Not entirely," said Flossy very sweetly. "We wanted to know whether it
was absolutely necessary that Miss West should stay with my brother."

"Absolutely necessary, madam!"

"Then of course we should not think of objecting to her presence, which,
I must tell you, is painful to us, because----"

"Excuse me, madam," said the doctor, who was certainly a very uncivil
person, "if I say that these family-matters are of no interest to me,
save as they affect my patient."

"But they do affect your patient, doctor. I think it was the worry of
the affair that brought on this illness. We have found out that this
Miss West's name is really 'Westwood,' and that she is the daughter of
the dreadful man who shot my husband's brother Beechfield some years
ago. Perhaps you remember the case?"

"Oh, yes--I remember it!" said the doctor shortly. "That's the daughter?
Poor girl!"

"It is naturally unpleasant to think that my brother--a cousin also of
the General's--should be contemplating a marriage with her," said Mrs.
Vane.

"Ah, well--perhaps so! We are all under the dominion of personal and
selfish prejudice," said Doctor Middlemass.

"I hoped that this illness might break the tie between them," sighed
Flossy pensively.

"So it may, madam--by killing him. Do you wish to break it in that
way?"

"This doctor is a perfect brute!" thought Mrs. Vane to herself; but she
only looked in a reproachful manner at the "brute," and applied her
handkerchief delicately to her eyes. "I trust that there is no
likelihood that it may end in that way. My poor dear Hubert," she
sighed, "if only you had been warned in time!"

Perhaps this display of emotion softened Doctor Middlemass' heart, or
perhaps he was not so insensible to Mrs. Vane's charms as he tried to
appear; at any rate, when he spoke again it was in a qualified tone.

"I trust that he will get over this attack. He is certainly a little
better than I expected to find him; but I cannot impress your mind too
strongly with the necessity for care and