d cut
over the ears with his whip; and when he pulled up he did so with a
jerk which he might easily have avoided.

"I sha'n't be many minutes," said the Doctor, alighting in front of a
comfortable-looking well-kept house, with red gleams of firelight
shining from its parlor windows. "Walk the horse up and down to keep
the cold off, but don't go far."

"It's cowld enough we'll both be, I'm thinkin'," muttered Patrick,
gathering up the reins with a shiver; for it was really a very cold
evening indeed, damp and gray, with a biting east wind.

If the Doctor heard this complaint, he did not heed it, his policy
being, when his henchman was attacked with a fit of grumbling, to let
him recover his good-temper at his leisure. He had hurried up the
snow-white flight of steps, given a vigorous knock at the door, and,
being admitted by a neat maid-servant, was asking if Mrs. Leslie were
at home. Hearing that she was, he crossed the hall with an air of being
perfectly at home, and, after tapping at the door, entered the parlor,
causing a lady who was making tea to utter an exclamation of surprise,
and a young lady who was making toast before the glowing fire to drop a
deliciously-browned slice of bread into the cinders.

"Why, Doctor"--the tea-maker extended a plump hand good-naturedly--"you
again? You are just in time for a cup of tea. I believe you came on
purpose."

"Hardly that; but I shall be glad of one, if I may have it, Mrs.
Leslie," the Doctor returned, emulating her light tone as well as he
could; and, after shaking hands with the younger lady, who got up from
her knees to greet him, he took a seat near the round table, not in the
well-worn, cozy arm-chair in the snuggest corner of the snug room,
which, with its gorgeous dressing-gown thrown across it and slippers
warming before the fire, wad evidently sacred to somebody else.

"Of course--although I fancy you rather despise it as a rule. Not a bit
like my Tom!"

"Ah, you see I'm not like Tom in having some one to make it for me!"

"Well, that's your fault, I suppose," said the lively woman,
vivaciously, as she deftly handled the shining copper kettle. "I told
Kate it was your knock; but she wouldn't believe that you could honor
us with two visits in one day."

"I thought Doctor Brudenell's time was too valuable," observed Kate,
quietly, as she resumed her toasting.

She was not nearly so pretty as her sister, although Mrs. Leslie was
the elder of the two by