Third Period Chapter 44 Fiction: Improved by the Doctor

"Where is Lord Harry?" Iris asked.

The reply startled her: "Lord Harry leaves me to say to your ladyship,
what he has not had resolution enough to say for himself."

"I don't understand you, Mr. Vimpany."

The doctor pointed to the fern which had just been the object of Lady
Harry's care.

"You have been helping that sickly plant there to live and thrive," he
said, "and I have felt some curiosity in watching you. There is another
sickly plant, which I have undertaken to rear if the thing can be done.
My gardening is of the medical kind--I can only carry it on
indoors--and whatever else it may be, I tell you plainly, like the
outspoken sort of fellow I am, it's not likely to prove agreeable to a
lady. No offence, I hope? Your humble servant is only trying to produce
the right sort of impression--and takes leave to doubt his lordship in
one particular."

"In what particular, sir?"

"I'll put it in the form of a question, ma'am. Has my friend persuaded
you to make arrangements for leaving the cottage?"

Iris looked at Lord Harry's friend without attempting to conceal her
opinion of him.

"I call that an impertinent question," she said. "By what right do you
presume to inquire into what my husband and I may, or may not, have
said to each other?"