without coming to him. Rosamund suggested that he might stay late at
Mount Laurels.

'Then he will arrive here after nightfall,' said the doctor. 'A bed is
at your service, ma'am.'

The offer was declined. 'I should like to have seen him to-day; but he
will be home shortly.'

'He will not quit Bevisham till this Election's decided unless to hunt a
stray borough vote, ma'am.'

'He goes to Mount Laurels.

'For that purpose.'

'I do not think he will persuade Colonel Halkett to vote in the Radical
interest.'

'That is the probability with a landed proprietor, ma'am. We must knock,
whether the door opens or not. Like,' the doctor laughed to himself up
aloft, 'like a watchman in the night to say that he smells smoke on the
premises.'

'Surely we may expect Captain Beauchamp to consult his family about so
serious a step as this he is taking,' Rosamund said, with an effort to be
civil.

Why should he?' asked the impending doctor.