"
Emily laughed and patted Mrs. Barnes' plump shoulder.
"Health!" she repeated. "Why, I have never been as well since I can
remember. I couldn't be sick here, in this wonderful place, if I tried.
Do you think I look ill? . . . Oh, Mr. Daniels!" addressing the lawyer,
who had just entered the dining-room, "I want your opinion, as a--a
specialist. Auntie is afraid I am ill. Don't you think I look about as
well as anyone could look?"
Heman bowed. "If my poor opinion is worth anything," he observed, "I
should say that to find fault with your appearance, Miss Howes, would
be like venturing to--er---paint the lily, as the saying is. I might say
more, but--ahem--perhaps I had better not."
Judging by the young lady's expression he had said quite enough already.
"Idiot!" she exclaimed, after he had left the room. "I ask him a
sensible question and he thinks it necessary to answer with a silly
compliment. Thought I was fishing for one, probably. Why will men be
such fools--some men?"
Mr. Daniels' opinion concerning his professional rival was asked a good
many times during that first fortnight. He treated the subject as he
did the rival, with condescending toleration. It was quite plain that
he considered his own position too secure to be shaken. In fact, his
feeling toward John Kendrick seemed to be a sort of kindly pity.
"He appears to be a very well-meaning young man," he said, in reply to
one of the questions. "Rash, of course; very young men are likely to be
rash--and perhaps more hopeful than some of us older and--ahem--wiser
persons might be under the same circumstances.
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