"Granting that I could win her--the idea seems contemptible presumption--what would follow? In her eyes, as well as in those of the whole world, I should have sacrificed my independence. I should have degraded myself; and in place of being spoken of in future as a slightly clever, eccentric doctor, I should sink into a successful fortune-hunter--a man admitted into the society that receives his wife, as her lapdog would be, at the end of a string. I couldn't do it, my dear madam; I could not bear it; for the galling part would be that I deserved my fate."

"I hope you do not exaggerate your patients' cases as you do your own, doctor."

"No exaggeration, my dear madam. Take another side of the question.

Suppose I did sink my pride--suppose my lady did condescend from her high pedestal to put a collar round my neck--how then? What should I be worth, leading such a lapdog existence? What would become of my theories, my efforts to make discoveries in our grand profession? Oh, Miss Raleigh, Miss Raleigh, I did think I had won some little respect from you! What would you say if you saw me lower myself to such an extent as that?"

Aunt Sophia smiled. "There would be something extremely droll to a bystander, if he heard all this. You talking of stooping!"

"Well, would it not be?" he cried. "With some women, yes; but you don't yet know Lady Martlett.--Oh, most _apropos_: she has come early, so as to have a pleasant afternoon without form. Doctor Scales, you are too late; you will have to stay."

"Confound the woman!" cried the doctor, as he saw Lady Martlett, very simply dressed, coming towards the lawn in company with Scarlett and his wife.

"I'll tell her you said so."

"I'll tell her myself."

"No; you will not," said Aunt Sophia quietly. "At one time, I thought that you needed a rival to bring you to your senses, but I venture to say that it will not be necessary." As she spoke, she advanced to meet the visitor, who embraced her cordially, and then bowed coldly to the doctor, as he raised his straw hat and then walked away.

Lady Martlett bit her lip, but took no further notice, devoting herself to her hostess, and talking a great deal to Scarlett, who, however, met her advances only peevishly, and seemed as if he found some under-thought in everything that was said, watching Lady Scarlett suspiciously, and whenever he left the group, hanging about so as to be within hearing and then suddenly rejoining them. This went on for some time, and then they adjourned to the house, where Lady Scarlett was soon after called away, and the visitor was left alone.

Volume 2, Chapter VI.

HOW LADY MARTLETT HUMBLED THE DOCTOR.

"I hate him, and I'll humble him yet!" said Lady Martlett, with her eyes flashing, as she saw Jack Scales coming along the path towards the drawing-room window. "How dares he a.s.sume such a high tone towards me!

How dares he speak to me as if I were an inferior, or a woman at whom he laughs as unworthy of his notice! I will humble him, proud as he may be." She watched him through the window as he walked very thoughtfully along the path; and probably it was anger that made her countenance show a higher colour than usual. The visit did not seem pleasant. The weather was all that could be desired; but there was to her something unrestful in the atmosphere. Kate Scarlett was nervous and excited, for some reason or other, and was constantly leaving her alone. Aunt Sophia had seemed more touchy than usual; and Naomi looked as if she were afraid of the visitor.

Lady Martlett had come, telling herself that she wanted company; now she was at The Rosery, she felt that she wanted to be alone. And now that, for the second time, Lady Scarlett had left her alone, she had been sitting fretfully, and thinking it very tiresome that she should be left.

Then came the sound of the footsteps of the doctor--a doctor who would have treated her complaint to perfection, had she not scornfully declared to herself that it was out of his power, and that he was an ignorant pretender, who did not understand her ailment in the least; and at last her eyes filled with tears.

"I'm a miserable woman!" she said to herself, as she called to mind the fact that she was a very rich young widow with beauty and a t.i.tle; that there were scores of opportunities for making a good match, did she wish to wed; that she had only to give an order to have it obeyed; and--yes-- here was this careless, indifferent young doctor, always ready to insult her, always treating her with a cool flippancy of manner, metaphorically snapping his fingers at her beauty of person, her t.i.tle, and her wealth, and all the time utterly refusing to become her slave.

Just then, Lady Martlett uttered a low sigh, biting her lip directly after, in vexation at her weakness, for Scales had sauntered by the French window, engagingly open as it was like a trap, with her inside as a most attractive bait, and without so much as once glancing in.

"I believe he knows I'm in here alone," she said to herself angrily; "and he has gone by on purpose to pique me. It is his conceit. He thinks I care for him. Oh, it is unbearable!" she cried impetuously.

"I'll bring him as a supplicant to my knees; and when I do," she continued, with a flash of triumph in her dark eyes, "he shall know what it is to have slighted and laughed at me!"

She fanned her flaming cheeks, and started up to pace the room, when once more there was the sound of the doctor's footsteps, as, in utter ignorance of Lady Martlett's presence, he returned along the gravel walk, thinking deeply over the knotty points of his patient's case.

Lady Martlett threw herself back in her seat, composed her features, but could not chase away the warm flush of resentment upon her checks. She, however, a.s.sumed an air of haughty languor, and appeared to be gazing at the landscape framed in by the open window.

"Heigh-ho-ha-hum!" sighed, or rather half-yawned Jack Scales, as he turned in at the window very slowly and thoughtfully, and for the moment did not see that the room was occupied.

Lady Martlett put her own interpretation upon the noise made by the doctor--she mentally called it a sigh, and her heart gave a satisfied throb as she told herself that he was touched--that her triumph was near at hand when she would humble him; and then--well, cast him off.

"Ah, Lady Martlett, you here?" he said coolly.--"What a lovely day!"

"Yes, doctor; charming," she said, softening her voice.

"And this is a lovely place.--Your home, the Court, is, of course, far more pretentious."

"I was not aware that there was anything pretentious about Leigh Court,"

said Lady Martlett coldly.

"Well, pretentious is perhaps not the word," said Jack, "I mean big and important, and solid and wealthy, and that sort of thing."

"Oh, I see," said Lady Martlett.

"And what I meant was, that this place is so much more charming, with its undulating lawn, its bosky clumps of evergreens, the pillar roses, and that wonderful clematis of which poor Scarlett is so fond."

"You speak like a house-agent's catalogue. Doctor Scales," said Lady Martlett scornfully.

"Yes, I do; don't I?" said Jack quietly, "But do you know, Lady Martlett, I often think that I could turn out a better description of a country estate than some of those fellows do?"

"Indeed?" said her Ladyship. "Yes, indeed," said Jack, who eagerly a.s.sumed his bantering tones as soon as he was alone with Lady Martlett, telling himself it was a rest, and that it was a necessity to bring down her Ladyship's haughtiness.

"Dang her! I'll make her thoroughly disgusted with me," he said to himself. "I hate the handsome Semiramis!--She'd like to drag me at her chariot-wheels, and she shall not."

"I believe," he continued, "that I could do something far better than the well-known specimen about the litter of rose-leaves and the noise of the nightingales."

"Indeed, doctor," said her Ladyship, with a curl of her lip.

"O yes," cried Scales. "Now, for instance, suppose that Leigh Court were to be let."

"Leigh Court is not likely to be let," said her Ladyship haughtily.

"No?" said the doctor, raising his eyebrows slightly. "Well, perhaps not, though one never knows. Your Ladyship might take a dislike to it, say; and if it were to go into the estate-agent's list--"

"It never will, Doctor Scales! I should consider it a profanation,"

said her Ladyship haughtily. "Pray, change the subject."

"Oh, certainly," said Scales politely.--"Been up to the Academy, of course?"

"Yes," said Lady Martlett coldly. "There was nothing, though, worth looking at. I was terribly bored."

"Hah! I suppose you would be. I had a couple of hours. All I could spare. There is some admirable work there, all the same."

"I was not aware that Doctor Scales was an art critic."

"Neither was I; but when I see a landscape that is a faithful rendering of nature in some beautiful or terrible mood, I cannot help admiring it."

"Some people profess to be very fond of pictures."

"I am one of those foolish people, Lady Martlett."

"And have you a valuable collection, Doctor Scales?"

"Collection? Well, I have a folio with a few water-colours in it, given me by artist friends instead of fees, and I have a few photographs; that is about all. As to their value--well, if sold, they would perhaps fetch thirty shillings."