blue tablet, GOD IS LOVE!

XI

The tea is sweetened.

We have been going on very pleasantly of late, each of us pretty well
occupied with his or her special business. The Counsellor has been
pleading in a great case, and several of The Teacups were in the
court-room. I thought, but I will not be certain, that some of his
arguments were addressed to Number Five rather than to the jury,--the
more eloquent passages especially.

Our young Doctor seems to me to be gradually getting known in the
neighborhood and beyond it. A member of one of the more influential
families, whose regular physician has gone to Europe, has sent for
him to come and see her, and as the patient is a nervous lady, who has
nothing in particular the matter with her, he is probably in for a
good many visits and a long bill by and by. He has even had a call at
a distance of some miles from home,--at least he has had to hire a
conveyance frequently of late, for he has not yet set up his own horse
and chaise. We do not like to ask him about who his patient may be,
but he or she is probably a person of some consequence, as he is absent
several hours on these out-of-town visits. He may get a good practice
before his bald spot makes its appearance, for I have looked for it
many times without as yet seeing a sign of it. I am sure he must feel
encouraged, for he has been very bright and cheerful of late; and if he
sometimes looks at our new handmaid as if he wished she were Delilah,
I do not think he is breaking his heart about her absence. Perhaps
he finds consolation in the company of the two Annexes, or one of
them,--but which, I cannot make out. He is in consultations occasionally
with Number Five, too, but whether professionally or not I have no means
of knowing. I cannot for the life of me see what Number Five wants of a
doctor for herself, so perhaps it is another difficult case in which her
womanly sagacity is called upon to help him.

In the mean time she and the Tutor continue their readings. In fact, it
seems as if these readings were growing more frequent, and lasted longer
than they did at first. There is a little arbor in the grounds connected
with our place of meeting, and sometimes they have gone there for their
readings. Some of The Teacups have listened outside once in a while,
for the Tutor reads well, and his clear voice must be heard in the
more emphatic passages, whether one is expressly listening or not. But
besides