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She nodded

"Then I have one or two things to add Whatever happens, do not lose heart for one ain Whatever happens, too, do not put yourself into a doctor's hands until I have seen Mr Baxter for radually And the very instant you are convinced it is coraph to me I will be here two hours after Do you understand?"

They halted twenty yards froain with his kindly hu in her own mind his instructions; and beneath, like a whirl of waters, questions surged to and fro, cla back each instant

"You understand, Miss Deronnais?" he said again

"I understand Will you write toOnce more, then Get him down next week Watch him carefully when he coraphed toalmost mechanically

"Good-bye, Miss Deronnais Let ; pray much"

He took her hand for athere

II

Mrs Baxter was exceedingly absorbed just now in a new pious book of yman A nicely bound copy of it, which she had ordered specially, had arrived by the parcels post that -roo it with a sion was to this lady what horticulture was to Maggie, except of course that it was really important, while horticulture was not She often wondered that Maggie did not see, dear girl; but religion surely was much more than that; one should be able to sit for two or three hours over a book in the drawing-room, before the fire, with a silver pencil

So at lunch she prattled of the book alie more unsubtle than ever: she looked rather tired and strained, thought the old lady, and she hardly said a word fro to end

The drive in the afternoon was equally unsatisfactory Mrs Baxter took the book with her, and the pencil, in order to read aloud a few extracts here and there; and she again seeie rather vacuous and silent