"I believe you are right _so_ far. Yes, in _that_ view of the case it is, perhaps, better that you should go away and then write," admitted Dr. Jones.
"And you will aid me in my efforts to get away at once and without opposition? Tell them that it is better for my health and spirits that I should go away for a while, and go immediately--as it really is, you know. Will you do this?"
"Yes, I will do it, in the hope that your nervous system may be strengthened, and you may find courage to do the duty that lies before you," said the doctor, as he pressed her hand and left the room.
Dr. Jones went down-stairs to the drawing-room, where the young ladies waited in anxious suspense.
Emma Cavendish arose and looked at him in silent questioning.
"There is no cause for alarm, my dear Emma. Your friend will do very well. No, you need not go up to her room. She requires absolutely nothing but to be left to repose. You can look in on her, if you like, just before you go to bed. That will be time enough," explained Dr. Jones, as he took his seat at the table and took up his _Review_ again as if nothing had happened to interrupt his reading.
Emma Cavendish breathed a sigh of relief and resumed her seat. She and Electra read or conversed in a low voice over their magazines until the hour of retiring.
Electra was the first to close her pamphlet, as with an undisguised yawn, for which her school-mistress would have rebuked her, she declared that she could not keep her eyes open a minute longer, much less read a line, and that she was going to bed.
Dr. Jones, with as much courtesy as if he had not been her grandfather, arose and lighted her bedroom candle and put it in her hand.
And she kissed him a drowsy good-night and went upstairs.
Emma was about to follow, when the doctor motioned her to resume her seat.
"I want a word with you about Mrs. Grey, my dear Emma. She is very much out of health."
"Or, to speak with more literal truth, I should say that her nervous system is very much disordered."
"She is full of sick fancies. She wishes to go away for a while to get a change of scene."
"I will go with her to any watering-place she desires to visit, in the season," said Emma Cavendish, readily.
"Yes; but, my dear, she must have this change now, immediately."
