he hateful fee.

"Stay," said I; "this is a case which needs the most constant watching.
I wish to call so often that I should seem the most greedy of doctors if
my visits were to be computed at guineas. Let me be at ease to effect
my cure; my pride of science is involved in it. And when amongst all the
young ladies of the Hill you can point to none with a fresher bloom, or
a fairer promise of healthful life, than the patient you intrust to my
care, why, then the fee and the dismissal. Nay, nay; I must refer you to
our friend Mrs. Poyntz. It was so settled with her before she brought me
here to displace Dr. Jones." Therewith I escaped.

CHAPTER XV.

In less than a week Lilian was convalescent; in less than a fortnight
she regained her usual health,--nay, Mrs. Ashleigh declared that she
had never known her daughter appear so cheerful and look so well. I had
established a familiar intimacy at Abbots' House; most of my evenings
were spent there. As horse exercise formed an important part of my
advice, Mrs. Ashleigh had purchased a pretty and quiet horse for her
daughter; and, except the weather was very unfavourable, Lilian now
rode daily with Colonel Poyntz, who was a notable equestrian, and often
accompanied by Miss Jane Poyntz, and other young ladies of the Hill.
I was generally relieved from my duties in time to join her as she
returned homewards. Thus we made innocent appointments, openly, frankly,
in her mother's presence, she telling me beforehand in what direction
excursions had been planned with Colonel Poyntz, and I promising to fall
in with the party--if my avocations would permit. At my suggestion,
Mrs. Ashleigh now opened her house almost every evening to some of the
neighbouring families; Lilian was thus habituated to the intercourse of
young persons of her own age. Music and dancing and childlike games made
the old house gay. And the Hill gratefully acknowledged to Mrs. Poyntz,
"that the Ashleighs were indeed a great acquisition."

But my happiness was not uncheckered. In thus unselfishly surrounding
Lilian with others, I felt the anguish of that jealousy which is
inseparable from those earlier stages of love, when the lover as yet
has won no right to that self-confidence which can only spring from the
assurance that he is loved.

In these social reunions I remained aloof from Lilian. I saw her courted
by the gay young admirers whom her beauty and her fortune drew around
her,--her soft face bright