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150 Looking at the doctor's face, she perceived that there was no probability whatever that her ignorance would be enlightened by him.

'And, therefore, it is highly necessary that Frank should be very careful.'

'As to his private expenditure, you mean?' said the doctor.

'No; not exactly that: though of course he must be careful as to that, too; that's of course. But that is not what I mean, doctor; his only hope of retrieving his circumstances is by marrying money.'

'With every other conjugal blessing that a man can have, I hope he may have that also.' So the doctor replied with imperturbable face; but not the less did he begin to have a shade of suspicion of what might be the coming subject of the conference. It would be untrue to say that he had ever thought it probable that the young heir should fall in love with his niece; that he had ever looked forward to such a chance, either with complacency or with fear; nevertheless, the idea had of late passed through his mind. Some word that had fallen from Mary, some closely-watched expression of her eye, or some quiver in her lip when Frank's name was mentioned, had of late made him involuntarily think that such might not be impossible; and then, when the chance of Mary becoming the heiress to so large a fortune had been forced upon his consideration, he had been unable to prevent himself from building happy castles in the air, as he rode slowly home from Boxall Hill. But not a whit the more on that account was he prepared to be untrue to the squire's interest, or to encourage a feeling which must be distasteful to all the squire's friends.

'Yes, doctor; he must marry money.'

'And worth, Lady Arabella; and a pure feminine heart; and youth and beauty, I hope he will marry them all.'

Could it be possible, that in speaking of a pure feminine heart, and youth and beauty, and such like gewgaws, the doctor was thinking of his niece? Could it be that he had absolutely made up his mind to foster and encourage this odious match?

The bare idea made Lady Arabella wrathful, and her wrath gave her courage. 'He must marry money, or he will be a ruined man. Now, doctor, I am informed that things—words that is—have passed between him and Mary which never ought to have been allowed.'

And now also was the doctor wrathful. 'What things? what words?' said he, appearing to Lady Arabella as though he rose in his anger nearly a foot in altitude before her eyes. 'What has passed between them? and who says so?'