"It will not do to stay lingering here as we did last
summer, and not only on your own account."
"You need not be afraid," was the muttered answer, as David bent down
his head over the exercise he was correcting. She made no answer,
and ere long he began again, "I don't mean that her equal exists, but
I am not such a fool as to delude myself with a spark of hope."
"She is too nice for that," said Mary.
"Just so," he said, glad to relieve himself when the ice had been
broken. "There's something about her that makes one feel her to be
altogether that doctor's, as much as if he were present in the
flesh."
"Are you hoping to wear that out? For I don't think you will."
"I told you I had no hope," he answered, rather petulantly. "Even
were it otherwise, there is another thing that must withhold me.
It has got abroad that she may turn out heiress to the old man at
Belforest."
"In such a hopeless case, would it not be wiser to leave this place
altogether?"
"I cannot," he exclaimed; then remembering that vehemence told
against him, he added, "Don't be uneasy; I am a reasonable man, and
she is a woman to keep one so; but I think I am useful to her, and I
am sure she is useful to me."
"That I allow she has been," said Mary, looking at her brother's much
improved appearance; "but-—"
"Moths and candles to wit," he returned; "but don't be afraid, I
attract no notice, and I think she trusts me about her boys.
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