that the anger was not directed against his daughter.

"I did not send him away. He took himself off. I had hardly begun to
speak to him--and I began quite quietly, mind--when he made the excuse
of a letter which he found waiting for him, to go back to town. Without
any ceremony, he rushed out of the study into the hall, and snatched up
his hat and coat to go."

"And is he gone?" asked Doreen, in a low voice, as she staggered back a
step.

"Oh, yes, I suppose so. And a good riddance, too. There was no letter at
all for him, I suppose."

"Yes, there was a letter!" faltered Doreen.

She gave a glance round her; seemed to remember suddenly the presence of
a third person, for she blushed deeply on meeting the doctor's eyes;
then, without another word, she sprang across the room to the door.

"Where are you going?" cried her father, as he followed her into the
hall.

But she did not answer. The hall-door was closing with a loud clang.

Doreen was not the girl to lose her lover for want of a little energy.
She was fonder of Dudley than people imagined. There is always an
inclination in the general mind to consider that a person of lively
temperament is incapable of a deep feeling. And Mr. Wedmore had only
shown a common tendency in believing that his beautiful and brilliant