But at the present moment the time of her death seeing likely to be determined by the strength of her own and other people's belief in the ghost's summons.' Mrs.Seaton's grim mouth relaxed into an ungenial smile.

She put up her eye-glass and looked at Catherine.

'An unpleasant household, I should imagine,' she said shortly, 'for a young lady to visit.' Doctor Baker looked at the rector's wife, and a kind of flame came into his eyes.

He and Mrs.Seaton were old enemies, and he was a quick-tempered mercurial sort of Man.
'I presume that one's guardian angel may have to follow one sometimes into unpleasant quarters,' he said hotly.

'If this girl lives, it will be Miss Leyburn's doing; if she dies, saved and comforted, instead of lost in this world and the next, it will be Miss Leyburn's doing too.
Ah, my dear young lady, let me alone! You tie my tongue always, and I won't have it.' And the doctor turned his weather-beaten elderly face upon her with a look which was half defiance and half apology.