“Let her have it this time,” said the doctor, “and you’ll never repent it. If she wants Bee to marry, let her marry. Bee is a dear little thing, but her mother, Kingsward, her mother--is of far more consequence to you than even she--”
“That is a matter of course,” said Colonel Kingsward. “Lucy is of more importance to me than all the world beside; but neither must I neglect the interests of my child.”
“Oh, bother the child,” cried the doctor, “let her have her lover; the mother is what you must think of now.”
“You seem tremendously in earnest, Southwood.”
“So I am--tremendously in earnest. And don’t you work your mind on the subject, but do what I say.”
“Do you mean to say that my wife is in a--state of danger?”
“I mean that she must be kept from worry--she must not be contradicted--things must not be allowed to go contrary to her wishes. Poor little Bee! I don’t say you are to let her marry a blackguard. But don’t worry her mother about it--that is the chief thing I’ve got to say.”
“No, I shan’t worry her mother about it,” said the Colonel, shutting his mouth closely as if he were locking it up. When Dr. Southwood was gone, however, he stopped the two girls who were lingering about to know the doctor’s opinion, and detaching Betty’s arm from about Bee’s waist drew his eldest daughter into his study and shut the door. “I want to speak to you, Bee,” he said.
“Yes, papa.” In this call to her alone to receive some communication, Bee, as may be imagined, jumped to a conclusion quite different from what her father intended, and almost for the moment forgot mamma.
“The doctor tells me that above everything your mother must be kept from worry. Do you understand? In the circumstances it is extremely important that you should know this.”
“Papa,” she cried, half in indignation half in disappointment, “do you think that I would worry her--in any circumstances?”
“I think that girls of your age often think that no affairs are so important as your own, and it is very likely that you may be of that opinion, and I wish you to know what the doctor says.”
“Is mamma--very ill?” Bee asked, bewildered.
“He does not say so--only that she is not to be fretted or contradicted, or disturbed about anything. I feel it necessary to warn you, Bee.”