第122章

Frank was away, and Mary was systematically banished, with due acknowledgement from all the powers in Greshamsbury. But this was not enough for Lady Arabella as long as her daughter still habitually consorted with the female culprit, and as long as her husband consorted with the male culprit. It seemed to Lady Arabella at this moment as though, in banishing Mary from the house, she had in effect banished herself from the most intimate of the Greshamsbury social circles. She magnified in her own mind the importance of the conferences between the girls, and was not without some fear that the doctor might be talking the squire over into very dangerous compliance.

Her object was to break of all confidential intercourse between Beatrice and Mary, and to interrupt, as far as she could do it, that between the doctor and the squire. This, it may be said, could be more easily done by skilful management within her own household. She had, however, tried that and failed. She had said much to Beatrice as to the imprudence of her friendship with Mary, and she had done this purposely before the squire; injudiciously however--for the squire had immediately taken Mary's part, and had declared that he had no wish to see a quarrel between his family and that of the doctor; that Mary Thorne was in every way a good girl, and an eligible friend for his own child; and had ended by declaring, that he would not have Mary persecuted for Frank's fault. This had not been the end, nor nearly the end of what had been said on the matter at Greshamsbury; but the end, when it came, came in this wise, that Lady Arabella determined to say a few words to the doctor as to the expediency of forbidding familiar intercourse between Mary and any of the Greshamsbury people.

With this view Lady Arabella absolutely bearded the lion in his den, the doctor in his shop. She had heard that both Mary and Beatrice were to pass a certain afternoon at the parsonage, and took that opportunity of calling at the doctor's house. A period of many years had passed since she had last so honoured that abode. Mary, indeed, had been so much one of her own family that the ceremony of calling on her had never been thought necessary; and thus, unless Mary had been absolutely ill, there would have been nothing to bring her ladyship to the house.

All this she knew would add to the importance of the occasion, and she judged it prudent to make the occasion as important as it might well be.

She was so far successful that she soon found herself tete-a-tete with the doctor in his own study. She was no whit dismayed by the pair of human thigh-bones which lay close to his hand, and which, when he was talking in that den of his own, he was in the constant habit of handling with much energy; nor was she frightened out of her propriety even by the little child's skull which grinned at her from off the chimney-piece.

'Doctor,' she said, as soon as the first complimentary greetings were over, speaking in her kindest and most would-be-confidential tone.

'Doctor, I am still uneasy about that boy of mine, and I have thought it best to come and see you at once, and tell you freely what I think.'

The doctor bowed, and said that he was very sorry that she should have any cause for uneasiness about his young friend Frank.

'Indeed, I am very uneasy, doctor; and having, as I do have, such reliance on your prudence, and such perfect confidence in your friendship, I have thought it best to come and speak to you openly:' thereupon the Lady Arabella paused, and the doctor bowed again.

'Nobody knows so well as you do the dreadful state of the squire's affairs.'

'Not so dreadful; not so very dreadful,' said the doctor, mildly: 'that is, as far as I know.'

'Yes they are, doctor; very dreadful; very dreadful indeed. You know how much he owes to this young man: I do not, for the squire never tells anything to me; but I know that it is a very large sum of money; enough to swamp the estate and ruin Frank. Now I call that very dreadful.'

'No, not ruin him, Lady Arabella; not ruin him, I hope.'

'However, I did not come to talk to you about that. As I said before, I know nothing of the squire's affairs, and, as a matter of course, I do not ask you to tell me. But I am sure you will agree with me in this that, as a mother, I cannot but be interested about my only son,' and Lady Arabella put her cambric handkerchief to her eyes.

'Of course you are; of course you are,' said the doctor; 'and, Lady Arabella, my opinion of Frank is such, that I feel sure that he will do well;' and, in his energy, Dr Thorne brandished one of the thigh-bones almost in the lady's face.

'I hope he will; I am sure I hope he will. But, doctor, he has such dangers to contend with; he is so warm and impulsive that I fear his heart will bring him into trouble. Now, you know, unless Frank marries money he is lost.'

The doctor made no answer to this last appeal, but as he sat and listened a slight frown came across his brow.

'He must marry money, doctor. Now we have, you see, with your assistance, contrived to separate him from dear Mary--'

'With my assistance, Lady Arabella! I have given no assistance, nor have I meddled in the matter; nor will I.'

'Well, doctor, perhaps not meddled; but you agreed with me, you know, that the two young people had been imprudent.'

'I agreed to no such thing, Lady Arabella; never, never. I not only never agreed that Mary had been imprudent, but I will not agree to it now, and will not allow any one to assert it in my presence without contradicting it:' and then the doctor worked away at the thigh-bones in a manner that did rather alarm her ladyship.

'At any rate, you thought that the young people had better be kept apart.'

'No; neither did I think that: my niece, I felt sure, was safe from danger. I knew that she would do nothing that would bring either her or me to shame.'

'Not to shame,' said the lady apologetically, as it were, using the word perhaps not exactly in the doctor's sense.