'Well, Dr. Cruden,' said Mrs. Brimble, 'what is your opinion of the improvements going on at the Dew? Mr. Brimble will not take us till all is complete.'
'The place will be charming, and so transformed that poor Marjory will not know it. Sir Eustace has an excellent taste, has he not, squire?'
'He's excellent every way, except that he has a sort of Saunders look sometimes, Mary thinks.'
'We are none of us infallible, Mr. Brimble; and, so exposed to mistakes as we have been by your imprudence, it was necessary I should be cautious.'
'Quite,' said the squire, who was watching with his eyeglass through a side window something that attracted him, and he immediately left the room.
'I think Eustace will be a valuable person in that position, doctor,' continued the lady, looking up from her work-frame, on which she was embroidering the arms of De la Mark for a chair for her nephew.
'I feel sure of it,' said the doctor.
'We shall miss him very much when he settles at the Dew. I hope he will marry well.'
'I don't know any one better able to choose a good wife, madam, and he is worthy of the best; therefore his marriage will doubtless give satisfaction.'
'I daresay, like all young men in his position, he has been married to more young ladies than one by the country gossips.'
'Not unlikely,' said the doctor.
'I have not heard any reports,' said Mrs. Brimble; 'but of course people would be delicate in speaking to me.'
'Oh yes, very properly so,' said the doctor, not in the least divining the lady's tactics.
'I suppose,' said Mrs. Brimble carelessly, looking very intently on some shades of wool, as if her whole heart were fixed upon making a right choice, 'you have never heard anything hinted, doctor?'
'I cannot say I have not. My sister, in her numerous visits, falls in with such reports, and she has told me of several; but I think none likely, though, indeed, one lady that I am not at liberty to name would shine in married life.'
Mrs. Brimble got quite out of sorts with her wools, and had to tumble her basket over for some time before she was calm enough to ask the doctor for the lady's name, which of course she did not wish to know from idle curiosity, but out of pure disinterested affection for her dear nephew.
'I hope I am not doing wrong,' said the doctor, 'in mentioning the Honourable Amelia Groves.'
'Oh, you need not fear my mentioning it,' said Mrs. Brimble quickly; 'but that will never come to anything. I know the kind of girl he ought to marry—some one with spirit, lively and amusing, and if I know anything of Eustace, his choice is nearly made, if not quite.'
'Oh,' said the doctor, 'I am sure you ought to tell me.'
'If you have not had a guess that way yourself, doctor, I would rather not.'
The doctor looked up at the ceiling, crossed and uncrossed his legs, leant his head upon his hand, rubbed his forehead, and went through all the various manoeuvres which imply deep thought, finishing the process by guessing one of the Miss Punters.
'I am a bad hand at guessing,' he said, finding that Miss............