got her answer. Barbara never saw Dr. Ingles! only heard the girls
mention him, and his going to the war. And then, after that, by Mr.
Jephson's advice, I went and gave Barbara my mind. She should marry Mr.
Jephson, who saved her life, or be the laughing stock of the country. I
showed her up to herself, with her glass ball, and her teleopathy, and
her sham love-letters, that she wrote herself, and all her humbug. She
cried, and she fainted, and she carried on, but I went at her whenever
she could listen to reason. So she said "Yes," and I am the happy
woman.'

'And Mr. Jephson is to be congratulated on so sensible and veracious a
bride,' said Merton.

'Oh, he says it is by no means an uncommon case, and that he has effected
a complete cure, and they will be as happy as idiots,' said Mrs.
Nicholson, as she rose to depart.

She left Merton pensive, and not disposed to overrate human nature. 'But
there can't be many fellows like Jephson,' he said. 'I wonder how much
the six figures run to?' But that question was never answered to his
satisfaction.




VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE EXEMPLARY EARL


I. The Earl's Long-Lost Cousin