CHAPTER III. DARBY AND JOAN



My reason haply more
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws!
SHAKESPEARE.


Lancelot saw his brother's doctors the next morning, and communicated
to his wife the upshot of the interview when they were driving to
their meeting in Mrs. Grinstead's victoria, each adorned with a big
bunch of primroses.

"Two doctors! and not Tom," said Gertrude.

"Both Brownlows. Tom knows them well, and wrote. One lives at the
East-end, and is sheet anchor to Whittingtonia. He began with
Clement, but made the case over to the cousin, the fashionable one,
when we made the great removal."

"So they consulted?"

"And fairly see the way out of the wood, though not by any means quit
of it, poor Tina; but there's a great deal to be thankful for," said
Lance, with a long breath.

"Indeed there is!" said the wife, with a squeeze of the hand. "But