The Woodlanders - Page 49/314

"Oh yes--a doctor--I believe I was told of him. It is a strange place

for him to settle in."

"It is a convenient centre for a practice, they say. But he does not

confine his studies to medicine, it seems. He investigates theology

and metaphysics and all sorts of subjects."

"What is his name?"

"Fitzpiers. He represents a very old family, I believe, the

Fitzpierses of Buckbury-Fitzpiers--not a great many miles from here."

"I am not sufficiently local to know the history of the family. I was

never in the county till my husband brought me here." Mrs. Charmond did

not care to pursue this line of investigation. Whatever mysterious

merit might attach to family antiquity, it was one which, though she

herself could claim it, her adaptable, wandering weltburgerliche nature

had grown tired of caring about--a peculiarity that made her a contrast

to her neighbors. "It is of rather more importance to know what the

man is himself than what his family is," she said, "if he is going to

practise upon us as a surgeon. Have you seen him?"

Grace had not. "I think he is not a very old man," she added.

"Has he a wife?"

"I am not aware that he has."

"Well, I hope he will be useful here. I must get to know him when I

come back. It will be very convenient to have a medical man--if he is

clever--in one's own parish. I get dreadfully nervous sometimes,

living in such an outlandish place; and Sherton is so far to send to.

No doubt you feel Hintock to be a great change after watering-place

life."

"I do. But it is home. It has its advantages and its disadvantages."

Grace was thinking less of the solitude than of the attendant

circumstances.

They chatted on for some time, Grace being set quite at her ease by her

entertainer. Mrs. Charmond was far too well-practised a woman not to

know that to show a marked patronage to a sensitive young girl who

would probably be very quick to discern it, was to demolish her dignity

rather than to establish it in that young girl's eyes. So, being

violently possessed with her idea of making use of this gentle

acquaintance, ready and waiting at her own door, she took great pains

to win her confidence at starting.

Just before Grace's departure the two chanced to pause before a mirror

which reflected their faces in immediate juxtaposition, so as to bring

into prominence their resemblances and their contrasts. Both looked

attractive as glassed back by the faithful reflector; but Grace's

countenance had the effect of making Mrs. Charmond appear more than her

full age. There are complexions which set off each other to great

advantage, and there are those which antagonize, the one killing or

damaging its neighbor unmercifully. This was unhappily the case here.

Mrs. Charmond fell into a meditation, and replied abstractedly to a

cursory remark of her companion's. However, she parted from her young

friend in the kindliest tones, promising to send and let her know as

soon as her mind was made up on the arrangement she had suggested.