He wondered whether that young lady had been
telling her old friend that she had succeeded with him. He thought this
improbable; but it didn't matter, and he said, gaily, "Well, I can
easily let her suppose so!"
It was evident that it would be no easier for Doctor Prance to subscribe
to a deception than it had been for her venerable patient; but she went
so far as to reply, "Well, I hope you won't let her suppose you are
where you were that time I conversed with you. I could see where you
were then!"
"It was in about the same place you were, wasn't it?"
"Well," said Doctor Prance, with a small sigh, "I am afraid I have moved
back, if anything!" Her sigh told him a good deal; it seemed a thin,
self-controlled protest against the tone of Miss Chancellor's interior,
of which it was her present fortune to form a part: and the way she
hovered round, indistinct in the gloom, as if she were rather loath to
resume her place there, completed his impression that the little
doctress had a line of her own.
"That, at least, must distress Miss Birdseye," he said reproachfully.
"Not much, because I am not of importance. They think women the equals
of men; but they are a great deal more pleased when a man joins than
when a woman does."
Ransom complimented Doctor Prance on the lucidity of her mind, and then
he said: "Is Miss Birdseye really sick? Is her condition very
precarious?"
"Well, she is very old, and very--very gentle," Doctor Prance answered,
hesitating a moment for her adjective.
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