The Girl at Cobhurst

y country above Thorbury, and when Mrs. Tolbridge had rattled through the town, she found the country road very rough and

high voice, to come in. The room was large and well lighted. Against one of the walls stood a high-posted bed with a canopy, and on one of the pillows of the bed appeared the head of an elderly woman, the skin darkened and w

med the person in the

thought it wa

" said Mrs. Tolbridge. "At times we h

he doctor?" ask

st night. He was coming here when he received your message, but I told him he should not do it; I would come myself, and i

dfastly upon her visitor, who h

ou know what will happen to you, if yo

" exclaime

ness. And the stouter and sturdier they are, the worse it is for them; they think they can do anything, and they do it. I'll

r's patients ought to have a regard for his health, and that they ought not to make him come to them in all sorts of weather, and at all hours

it is all stuff and nonsense. They do him good; they rest him; they brighten him up. He's never livelier than when he is with me. He doesn't have to ha

he never has to do anything of that kind for you.

a doctor. I don't send for him when I am in the last stages of anything. But we won't talk anythi

verworked, and needs rest. Just the sort o

ore than that if you do not want to see him break down. You must give him g

, "I think I give my husband as good living

rving before your eyes. There isn't a man, woman, or child, in or

. "I think you do man

Pan

friends live well, too. By the way, did you ever make ru

d of it," rep

Then you should sift in sugar according to taste, and when you have put a dry macaroon, which has been soaking in rum all this time, in the bottom of a glass saucer, you pile the flake over it, and it's ready for him, except that sometim

dge burst o

y!" she exclaimed, "yo

a drawer. "A warm dress is a good thing t

a night-cap,"

said Miss Panney, turning over

nued Mrs. Tolbridg

d without the aid of spectacles, she began to read. "It's exactly as I told you," she said presently, "except that some people use sp

," said the other; "bu

here is one thing, Mrs. Tolbridge, that you should never forget, and that is

n bed with all your clothes on. I believe that you did not expect the doctor so soo

if she couldn't come to him, instead of his having to go to her; but when he finds the ailing person in bed, the case is natural and straightforward; he feels at home, and knows how to go to work. If you believe in a doctor, you ought to make him bel

e did not say so, that probably this old lady

he said, rising, "what

ap, and replaced it with her ordi

," she asked, "of the yo

hur

. Tolbridge, "

about him. Of course this is a mere secondary matter. My back has been troubling me a good deal lately, but as the doctor is so pushed, I won't ask him to come here on purpose to see me. If

stakes, Miss Panney. Those old pre

me. Not a drop of it do I ever take inside of me, prescription or no prescription. But I don't mind putting things on the ou

Panney still lived with them, and seemed to be much the very same old lady as she was when she arrived. She was a woman who kept a good deal to herself, having many resources for her active mind. With many people who were not acquainted with her socially but knew all about her, she had the reputation of being wicked. The principal reason for this belief was the well-known fact that she always

iked very much to go to hear her. Mr. Hampton, the Methodist, would talk to her about flower-gardening and the by-gone people and ways of the region, while Mr. Ames, the rector, who was a young ma

e company of clergymen and physicians, she b

t it, it is there, and you can read it for yourself. But the practice of medicine has to be shifted to suit individual cases, and the practice of theology is shift

nd pained she had been when summoned from boarding-school to attend his funeral, and how she had been impressed by the idea that the preparations for this important event consisted mainly in beating up eggs, stemming raisins, baking cakes and pies, a

riend and counsellor for many years. But he, too, was dead, and the office had now devol

the past of which he knew but little, and about which he could not wholly sympathize with her. But she believed that years wou

h engaged in suits at law, but it was surprising how much legal b

the old lady put away her scrap-bo

in the family in the course of the spring, should not have turned up to-day. I want very much to talk to