Mrs. Cavendish had seen the change in her son's
demeanor and had watched him closely through his
varying moods, but though she divined their cause
she had not sought to probe his secret.

His greatest comfort was in his visits to Martha.
He always dropped in to see her when he made his
rounds in the neighborhood; sometimes every day,
sometimes once a week, depending on his patients
and their condition--visits which were always prolonged
when a letter came from either of the girls,
for at first Lucy wrote to the old nurse as often as
did Jane. Apart from this the doctor loved the
patient caretaker, both for her loyalty and for her
gentleness. And she loved him in return; clinging
to him as an older woman clings to a strong man,
following his advice (he never gave orders) to the
minutest detail when something in the management
or care of house or grounds exceeded her grasp.
Consulting him, too, and this at Jane's special request
--regarding any financial complications which
needed prompt attention, and which, but for his
services, might have required Jane's immediate return
to disentangle. She loved, too, to talk of Lucy and of
Miss Jane's goodness to her bairn, saying she had
been both a sister and a mother to her, to which
the doctor would invariably add some tribute of
his own which only bound the friendship the
closer.