She magnified in her own mind the importance of the conferences between the girls, and was not without some fear that the doctor might be talking the squire over into very dangerous compliance.
She resolved, therefore, on another duel with the doctor.

In the first she had been pre-eminently and unexpectedly successful.

No young sucking dove could have been more mild than that terrible enemy whom she had for years regarded as being too puissant for attack.

In ten minutes she had vanquished him, and succeeded in banishing both him and his niece from the house without losing the value of his services.

As is always the case with us, she had begun to despise the enemy she had conquered, and to think that the foe, once beaten, could never rally.
Her object was to break off all confidential intercourse between Beatrice and Mary, and to interrupt, as far as she could do it, that between the doctor and the squire.