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Miss Pross, submitting herself to his judgment, the scheme was

worked out with care. Having abundance of time for his usual

methodical toilette, Mr. Lorry presented himself at the

breakfast-hour in his usual white linen, and with his usual neat

leg. The Doctor was summoned in the usual way, and came to

breakfast.

So far as it was possible to comprehend him without overstepping

those delicate and gradual approaches which Mr. Lorry felt to be

the only safe advance, he at first supposed that his daughter's

marriage had taken place yesterday. An incidental allusion,

purposely thrown out, to the day of the week, and the day of the

month, set him thinking and counting, and evidently made him

uneasy. In all other respects, however, he was so composedly

himself, that Mr. Lorry determined to have the aid he sought. And

that aid was his own.

Therefore, when the breakfast was done and cleared away, and he

and the Doctor were left together, Mr. Lorry said, feelingly: