gentlemen, and pretending
they had no will of their own against such fascination! Improper and
shocking! And Miss Brabazon beginning to prophesy, and Mrs. Leopold
Smythe questioning her maid (whom Dr. Lloyd declared to be highly
gifted) as to all the secrets of her friends. When I saw this, I said,
'The Hill is becoming demoralized; the Hill is making itself ridiculous;
the Hill must be saved!' I remonstrated with Dr. Lloyd as a friend; he
remained obdurate. I annihilated him as an enemy, not to me but to the
State. I slew my best lover for the good of Rome. Now you know why I
took your part,--not because I have any opinion, one way or the other,
as to the truth or falsehood of what Dr. Lloyd asserted; but I have a
strong opinion that, whether they be true or false, his notions were
those which are not to be allowed on the Hill. And so, Allen Fenwick,
that matter was settled."

Perhaps at another time I might have felt some little humiliation
to learn that I had been honoured with the influence of this great
potentate not as a champion of truth, but as an instrument of policy;
and I might have owned to some twinge of conscience in having assisted
to sacrifice a fellow-seeker after science--misled, no doubt, but
preferring his independent belief to his worldly interest--and sacrifice
him to those deities with whom science is ever at war,--the Prejudices
of a Clique sanctified into the Proprieties of the World. But at that
moment the words I heard made no perceptible impression on my mind. The
gables of Abbots' House were visible above the evergreens and lilacs;
another moment, and the carriage stopped at the door.

CHAPTER XIV.

Mrs. Ashleigh received us in the dining-room. Her manner to me, at
first, was a little confused and shy. But my companion soon communicated
something of her own happy ease to her gentler friend. After a short
conversation we all three went to Lilian, who was in a little room on
the ground-floor, fitted up as her study. I was glad to perceive that my
interdict of the deathchamber had been respected.

She reclined on a sofa near the window, which was, however, jealously
closed; the light of the bright May-day obscured by blinds and
curtains; a large fire on the hearth; the air of the room that of a
hot-house,--the ignorant, senseless, exploded system of nursing into
consumption those who are confined on suspicion of it! She did not heed
us as we entered noiselessly; her eyes were drooped