He always dropped in to see her when he made his rounds in the neighborhood; sometimes every day, sometimes once a week, depending on his patients and their condition--visits which were always prolonged when a letter came from either of the girls, for at first Lucy wrote to the old nurse as often as did Jane.

Apart from this the doctor loved the patient caretaker, both for her loyalty and for her gentleness.

And she loved him in return; clinging to him as an older woman clings to a strong man, following his advice (he never gave orders) to the minutest detail when something in the management or care of house or grounds exceeded her grasp.

Consulting him, too, and this at Jane's special request--regarding any financial complications which needed prompt attention, and which, but for his services, might have required Jane's immediate return to disentangle.

She loved, too, to talk of Lucy and of Miss Jane's goodness to her bairn, saying she had been both a sister and a mother to her, to which the doctor would invariably add some tribute of his own which only bound the friendship the closer.
His main relief, however, lay in his work, and in this he became each day more engrossed.