watched them as they turned down a back lane to the village, the lathy
figure of the lad towering by the head and shoulders above the poke
bonnet and drab cloak of Miss Wort. He was talking with much violent
gesture of arm and fist, and she was silent. But she was not ruminating
physic.

"Miss Wort is like one of the old saints--she is not ashamed in any
company," said Bessie Fairfax.

"If justice were satisfied with good intentions, Miss Wort would be a
blameless woman," said her father.

A few minutes more brought the ride to an end at the doctor's door. And
there was a messenger waiting for him with a peremptory call to a
distance. It was a very rare chance indeed that he had a whole holiday.
His reputation for skill stood high in the Forest, and his practice was
extensive in proportion. But he had health, strength, and the heart for
it; and in fact it was his prosperity that bore half the burden of his
toils.




CHAPTER V.

_GREAT-ASH FORD._


A week elapsed. Lady Latimer called twice on Mrs. Carnegie to offer
counsel and countenance to Bessie Fairfax. The news that she was going