"I will write you a prescription."
"Thanks! What an invaluable husband you will make with all that knowledge at your finger ends! I need have no misgivings as to Ethel's health, and she has always been so subject to chills. The risk of entrusting one's daughter to an unobservant man is shocking, but to a physician! To have for one's daily companion a great and renowned doctor, what an advantage—what a security!"
"Really, mamma, to hear you talk one would suppose that I was an invalid, and I never remember to have suffered from anything worse than the measles."
"When Ethel comes to me she will be guarded as sacredly as a girl can be."
Sir John smiled kindly at his betrothed.
"I have made but a few protestations of what I feel for her; perhaps I am more reserved than I should be, but I am no longer a boy. I doubt whether I ever was very romantic, even in my younger days, but I think that she and I understand each other, and if we don't tiff and 'make it up,' if we have been engaged three months and have never had a quarrel, that does not mean that my affection is not most sincere and deep."
"I should hope we like each other too well to quarrel," said Lady Ethel haughtily.
Like! After all, was it love on either side? Sir John asked himself.
"My dear Sir John," broke in the Duchess pompously. "A few words from such a man as yourself impress me more profoundly than rhapsodies from another. Ethel, just look out of the window and see if the carriage is waiting. We are going to take the Lancaster girls to the Academy, and Payne has driven round to fetch them while we had our consultation with you."
"Yes, mamma, it is there."
"I will follow you in a minute, Ethel; say good-bye to John—," and when the door had closed upon her daughter, she began hurriedly:
"It is hardly the time and place perhaps, but you will pardon that. I—really, it is very awkward. Can you not help me, Sir John? The weeks are slipping by, and I should, I confess, like to make
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