Of course Lady Arabella could not suckle the young heir herself. Ladies
Arabella never can. They are gifted with the powers of being mothers,
but not nursing-mothers. Nature gives them bosoms for show, but not
for use. So Lady Arabella had a wet-nurse. At the end of six months
the new doctor found Master Frank was not doing quite so well as he
should do; and after a little trouble it was discovered that the very
excellent young woman who had been sent express from Courcy Castle to
Greshamsbury--a supply being kept up on the lord's demesne for the
family use--was fond of brandy. She was at once sent back to the
castle, of course; and, as Lady de Courcy was too much in dudgeon to
send another, Dr Thorne was allowed to procure one. He thought of the
misery of Roger Scatcherd's wife, though also of her health and
strength, and active habits; and thus Mrs Scatcherd became the
foster-mother to young Gresham.

One other episode we must tell of past times. Previous to his father's
death, Dr Thorne was in love. Nor had he altogether sighed and pleaded
in vain; though it had not quite come to that, the young lady's
friends, or even the young lady herself, had actually accepted his
suit. At that time his name stood well in Barchester. His father was
a prebendary; his cousins and his best friends were the Thornes of
Ullathorne, and the lady, who shall be nameless, was not thought to be
injudicious in listening to the young doctor. But when Henry Thorne
went so far astray, when the old doctor died, when the young doctor
quarrelled with Ullathorne, when the brother was killed in a
disgraceful quarrel, and it turned out that the physician had nothing
but his profession and no settled locality in which to exercise it;
then, indeed, the young lady's friends thought that she was
injudicious, and the young lady herself had not spirit enough, or love