"What difference can it make, if she's only the tree your rainbow falls

on?"

"Ha! ha! True."

"You have no wife, sir?"

"I have no wife, and no idea of one. I hope to do better things than

marry and settle in Hintock. Not but that it is well for a medical man

to be married, and sometimes, begad, 'twould be pleasant enough in this

place, with the wind roaring round the house, and the rain and the

boughs beating against it. I hear that you lost your life-holds by the

death of South?"

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"I did. I lost in more ways than one."

They had reached the top of Hintock Lane or Street, if it could be

called such where three-quarters of the road-side consisted of copse

and orchard. One of the first houses to be passed was Melbury's. A

light was shining from a bedroom window facing lengthwise of the lane.

Winterborne glanced at it, and saw what was coming. He had withheld an

answer to the doctor's inquiry to hinder his knowledge of Grace; but,

as he thought to himself, "who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who

hath bound the waters in a garment?" he could not hinder what was

doomed to arrive, and might just as well have been outspoken. As they

came up to the house, Grace's figure was distinctly visible, drawing

the two white curtains together which were used here instead of blinds.

"Why, there she is!" said Fitzpiers. "How does she come there?"

"In the most natural way in the world. It is her home. Mr. Melbury is

her father."

"Oh, indeed--indeed--indeed! How comes he to have a daughter of that

stamp?"

Winterborne laughed coldly. "Won't money do anything," he said, "if

you've promising material to work upon? Why shouldn't a Hintock girl,

taken early from home, and put under proper instruction, become as

finished as any other young lady, if she's got brains and good looks to

begin with?"

"No reason at all why she shouldn't," murmured the surgeon, with

reflective disappointment. "Only I didn't anticipate quite that kind

of origin for her."

"And you think an inch or two less of her now." There was a little

tremor in Winterborne's voice as he spoke.

"Well," said the doctor, with recovered warmth, "I am not so sure that

I think less of her. At first it was a sort of blow; but, dammy! I'll

stick up for her. She's charming, every inch of her!"




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