show her love for her child, if she may not turn accidental circumstances to her advantage. Perhaps Cynthia might have died if she had been crossed in love; her poor father was consumptive.”

“Don’t you know that all professional conversations are confidential? That it would be the most dishonourable thing possible for me to betray secrets which I learn in the exercise of my profession?”

“Yes, of course, you.”

“Well! and are not you and I one in all these respects? You cannot do a dishonourable act without my being inculpated in the disgrace. If it would be a deep disgrace for me to betray a professional secret, what would it be for me to trade on that knowledge?”

He was trying hard to be patient; but the offence was of that class which galled him insupportably.

“I don’t know what you mean by trading. Trading in a daughter’s affections is the last thing I should do; and I should have thought you would be rather glad than otherwise to get Cynthia well-married, and off your hands.”

Mr. Gibson got up, and walked about the room, his hands in his pockets. Once or twice he began to speak; but he stopped impatiently short without going on.

“I don’t know what to say to you,” he said at length “You either can’t or won’t see what I mean. I’m glad enough to have Cynthia here. I have given her a true welcome, and I sincerely hope she will find this house as much a home as my own daughter does. But for the future I must look outside my doors, and double-lock the approaches, if I am so foolish as to——However, that’s past and gone; and it remains with me to prevent its recurrence, as far as I can, for the future. Now let us hear the present state of affairs.”

“I don’t think I ought to tell you anything about it. It is a secret, just as much as your mysteries are.”

“Very well; you have told me enough for me to act upon, which I most certainly shall do. It was only the other day I promised the Squire to let him know if I suspected anything—any love-affair, or entanglement, much less an engagement, between either of his sons and our girls.”

“But this is not an engagement; he would not let it be so; if you would only listen to me, I could tell you all. Only, I do hope you won’t go and tell the Squire and everybody. Cynthia did so beg that it might not be known. It is only my unfortunate frankness that has led me into this scrape. I never could keep a secret from those whom I love.”

“I must tell the Squire. I shall not mention it to any one else. And do you quite think it was consistent with your general frankness to have overheard what you did, and never to have mentioned it to me? I could have told you then that Dr. Nicholls’ opinion was decidedly opposed to mine, and that he believed that the disturbance about which I consulted him on Osborne’s behalf was merely temporary. Dr. Nicholls would tell you that Osborne is as likely as any man to live and marry and beget children.”

If there was any skill used by Mr. Gibson so to word this speech as to conceal his own opinion, Mrs. Gibson was not sharp enough to find it out. She was dismayed, and Mr. Gibson enjoyed her dismay; it restored him to something like his usual frame of mind.

“Let us review this misfortune, for I see you consider it as such,” said he.

“No, not quite a misfortune,” said she. “But certainly, if I had known Dr. Nicholls’ opinion”——she hesitated.

“You see the advantage of always consulting me,” he continued gravely. “Here is Cynthia engaged”——

“Not engaged, I told you before. He would not allow it to be considered an engagement on her part.”