old? If they know better, it's positively _fiendish._ I'll blow him up--I
will indeed, my dear. You know you're an heiress, and ought not to appear
like a jack-pudding.'

'Papa intends sending me to London with Madame and Mary Quince, and going
with me himself, if Doctor Bryerly says he may make the journey, and then I
am to have dresses and everything.'

'Well, that is better. And who is Doctor Bryerly--is your papa ill?'

'Ill; oh no; he always seems just the same. You don't think him
ill-_looking_ ill, I mean?' I asked eagerly and frightened.

'No, my dear, he looks very well for his time of life; but why is Doctor
What's-his-name here? Is he a physician, or a divine, or a horse-doctor?
and why is his leave asked?'

'I--I really don't understand.'

'Is he a what d'ye call'em--a Swedenborgian?'

'I believe so.'

'Oh, I see; ha, ha, ha! And so poor Austin must ask leave to go up to town.
Well, go he shall, whether his doctor likes it or not, for it would not do
to send you there in charge of your Frenchwoman, my dear. What's her name?'

'Madame de la Rougierre.'