An Only Offer - Page 2

looks, father.'

"'Nobody wants thee to like his looks. He is Mr. Alfred's physician--a
Dr. Orman, of Boston. Neither of them are any of thy business, so ask no
more questions;' and with that he went back to the barn.

"Mother was not at all astonished. She said there had been letters on
the subject already, and that she had been rather expecting the company.
'But,' she added, 'they will pay well, and as Melissa is to be married
at Christmas, ready money will be very needful.'

"About dark a carriage arrived. It contained two gentlemen and several
large trunks. I had been watching for it behind the lilac trees and I
saw that our afternoon visitor was now accompanied by a slight, very
fair-man, dressed with extreme care in the very highest fashion. I saw
also that he was handsome, and I was quite sure he must be rich, or no
doctor would wait upon him so subserviently.

"This doctor I had disliked at first sight, and I soon began to imagine
that I had good cause to hate him. His conduct to his patient I believed
to be tyrannical and unkind. Some days he insisted that Mr. Compton was
too ill to go out, though the poor gentleman begged for a walk; and
again, mother said, he would take from him all his books, though he
pleaded urgently for them.

"One afternoon the postman brought Dr. Orman a letter, which seemed to
be important, for he asked father to drive him to the next town, and
requested mother to see that Mr. Compton did not leave the house. I
suppose it was not a right thing to do, but this handsome sick stranger,
so hardly used, and so surrounded with mystery, had roused in me a
sincere sympathy for his loneliness and suffering, and I walked through
that part of the garden into which his windows looked. We had been
politely requested to avoid it, 'because the sight of strangers
increased Mr. Compton's nervous condition.' I did not believe this, and
I determined to try the experiment.

"He was leaning out of the window, and a sadder face I never saw. I
smiled and courtesied, and he immediately leaped the low sill, and came
toward me. I stooped and began to tie up some fallen carnations; he
stooped and helped me, saying all the while I know not what, only that
it seemed to me the most beautiful language I ever heard. Then we walked
up and down the long peach walk until I heard the rattle of father's
wagon.

"After this we became quietly, almost secretly, as far as Dr. Orman was
concerned, very great friends. Mother so thoroughly pitied Alfred, that
she not only pretended oblivion of our friendship, but even promoted it
in many ways; and in the course of time Dr. Orman began to recognize its
value. I was requested to walk past Mr. Compton's