aid, ambiguously.

"You are to recollect, Geddes, that a woman is always as young as
she looks," (Mr. Jelnik bowed, smilingly, to Miss Hopkins), "and a
man is older than he feels," he added, for the doctor's benefit.

"All right. Let's say I feel as good as Martha looks," the doctor's
momentary ill humor vanished. Miss Hopkins smiled. She had stuck her
claws into him and drawn blood; but her fur was still ruffled.

Mr. Jelnik made his adieus, Boris offering each of us a polite paw.

"And now," the doctor ordered briskly, "to your spinning, jades, to
your spinning! Into my car, the three of you! No, Martha, I will
_not_ take a refusal; you shall not walk: you've got to come along,
if I have to tuck you under my arm. I don't care if you never
reduce. What do you want to reduce for, anyhow? You're all right
just as you are! There! are you satisfied?"

We stood by passively while the masterful doctor heckled and hustled
the unhappy Center of Culture into his car. With heaven knows what
feelings, she found herself seated beside me, Sophy Smith, while
Alicia, beside the doctor, tossed gay remarks over her shoulder.
Miss Hopkins realized that all Hyndsville would witness what she
herself knew to be high-handed capture by force, but which must
hideously resemble capitulation; and she also realized that
explanations never explain.

I respected her misery enough to keep silent, and she made no
attempt to converse. Her hat slid forward at a rakish angle over one
ear, and her hair blew about her face in stringy wisps, as the
doctor broke the speed laws on the long, level stretches of quiet
roads. When we came to a rough spot she bounced up and down (one
might hear her breath exhaled in a--well, yes, in a grunt) but she
made no complaint, uttered no protest. She was a shackled and
voiceless victim, until we finally drew up at her own gate, after an
hour's jaunt, and allowed her to escape.

"Why, Martha, our little spin has given you a fine color!" remarked
the doctor, genuinely pleased. Two conspicuously red spots shone in
Miss Hopkins's cheeks, and her eyes were extremely bright. "We'll
have to take you out with us again," he added, genially.

"Shall you, Richard?" muttered Miss Hopkins, and scuttled up her
front path,

Like one who in a lonesome wood
Doth walk in fear and dread,
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread!

By and large, I should say that