Chapter XV.


The Doctor.


As the year advanced, the servants at Mount Morven remarked that
the weeks seemed to follow each other more slowly than usual. In
the higher regions of the house, the same impression was
prevalent; but the sense of dullness among the gentlefolks
submitted to circumstances in silence.

If the question had been asked in past days: Who is the brightest
and happiest member of the family? everybody would have said:
Kitty. If the question had been asked at the present time,
differences of opinion might have suggested different
answers--but the whole household would have refrained without
hesitation from mentioning the child's name.

Since Sydney Westerfield's departure Kitty had never held up her
head.

Time quieted the child's first vehement outbreak of distress
under the loss of the companion whom she had so dearly loved.
Delicate management, gently yet resolutely applied, held the
faithful little creature in check, when she tried to discover the
cause of her governess's banishment from the house. She made no
more complaints; she asked no more embarrassing questions--but it
was miserably plain to everybody about her that she failed to
recover her spirits. She was willing to learn her lessons (but