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"Then I must not even tell her that she won't be required to croquet,

and that I'll guard her from all civil speeches"

"No, for indeed, Bessie, on your own account and Lord Keith's, you

should hardly spend a long afternoon from houe, dawdling about

Mrs Huntsford's garden, isabout "

"I cannot help thinking, Bessie, that Lord Keith is more ill than you

suppose I aravely; "but what can be done? He will see no

one but his old surgeon in Edinburgh"

"Then take him there"

"Take him? You must knohat it is to be in the hands of a clever woman

before you make such a proposal"

"You are a cleverer wo about what you really

wish"

"Just consider, Alick, our own house is uninhabitable, and this one on

our hands-- to me in a month's time You don't ask me to

do what is reasonable"