Mrs. Wedmore hesitated a moment. She had her suspicions, and she would
dearly have liked to know more. But she was the best trained of wives;
and after a moment's pause, seeing that she was to hear nothing further,
she said, good-humoredly: "All right, dear," and left the room, just in
time to shake hands with Doctor Haselden as she went out.

Now, while the host found it impossible to shake off the signs of his
old calling, the doctor was a man who had never been able to assume
them. From head to foot there was no trace of the doctor in his
appearance; he looked all over what at heart he was--the burly,
good-humored, home-loving, land-loving country gentleman, who looked
upon Great Datton, where his home was, as the pivot of the world.

However he was dressed, he always looked shabby, and he could never have
been mistaken for anything but an English gentleman.

He shook hands with Mr. Wedmore, with a smile. These poor Londoners,
trying to acclimatize themselves, amused him greatly. He looked upon
them much as the Londoner looks upon the Polish Jew immigrants--with
pity, a little jealousy, and no little scorn.

"Where's Carlo?" asked he.

"Oh, Carlo was a nuisance, so I've sent him to the stable," said Mr.
Wedmore, with the slightly colder manner which he instantly assumed if
any grievance of his, however small, was touched upon.

Carlo was a young retriever, which Mr. Wedmore, in the stern belief that
it was the proper thing in a country house, had encouraged about the
house until his habits of getting between everybody's legs and helping