“You said you wanted to see me before lunch, miss.” Though the girl was making a great effort to seem calm, her lips were trembling and her eyes were swollen with crying. 29 CHAPTER III Late that same evening, Dr. Maclean, his wife, and their adopted daughter, were all sitting together in the dining room of Bonnie Doon. The Macleans had bought the charming old house soon after the doctor had taken over the practice of Miss Prince’s father, and they had renamed it after Mrs. Maclean’s birthplace. To-night, his wife and niece being by the table, the doctor sat close to the fire smoking his pipe. “Dr. Tasker popped in to tea to-day,” observed Mrs. Maclean. As her husband said nothing she went on: “He waited quite a long while in the hope of seeing you. I’m doubting, Jock, whether we’ve been quite fair to that young man. He spoke very handsomely of you—he did indeed.” “I’ve no need of his praise,” said the doctor dryly. “I didn’t say you had. All the same I hope you’ll not scold me for having asked him to supper to-morrow night. He says Sunday is such a dull day in Grendon.” “I can’t promise to stay in for him if I’m sent for,” said Dr. Maclean, in a voice which his wife thought somewhat tiresome. There had been a time, not so very long ago, when it was she, rather than her husband, who had disliked the young medical man who had suddenly “put up his plate,” as the saying is, on the door of almost the last house in Grendon. But Dr. Tasker had spoken to her very pleasantly at the cricket match. He had made friends, too, with Jean, and so Mrs. Maclean was now prepared to take him, at any rate in a measure, to her kindly Scots heart. For a few moments there was silence in the room. Dr. Maclean turned himself round, and his eyes rested with appreciative affection on the bent head of the girl who even in a few weeks had so much brightened and enlivened his own and his wife’s childless home. 30Jean’s hair was the colour of spun gold, and she had a delicately clear skin, giving depth to her hazel eyes. But her
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