any disagreeable scenes. When he went downstairs
he looked very thoughtful and when he
talked to Mrs. Medlock in the library she felt that
he was a much puzzled man.

"Well, sir," she ventured, "could you have believed
it?"

"It is certainly a new state of affairs," said the
doctor. "And there's no denying it is better
than the old one."

"I believe Susan Sowerby's right -- I do that,"
said Mrs. Medlock. "I stopped in her cottage
on my way to Thwaite yesterday and had a bit of
talk with her. And she says to me, 'Well, Sarah
Ann, she mayn't be a good child, an' she mayn't be
a pretty one, but she's a child, an' children needs
children.' We went to school together, Susan
Sowerby and me."

"She's the best sick nurse I know," said Dr.
Craven. "When I find her in a cottage I know
the chances are that I shall save my patient."

Mrs. Medlock smiled. She was fond of Susan
Sowerby.

"She's got a way with her, has Susan," she went
on quite volubly. "I've been thinking all morning
of one thing she said yesterday. She says,
'Once when I was givin' th' children a bit of a
preach after they'd been fightin' I ses to 'em all,
"When I was at school my jography told as th'

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