In plainer terms still, this anxious matter meant nothing less than the possibility that she might again become a mother.
When the doubt had first suggested itself she had treated it as a mere delusion.

The long interval that had elapsed since the birth of her last child; the serious illness which had afflicted her after the death of that child in infancy; the time of life at which she had now arrived--all inclined her to dismiss the idea as soon as it arose in her mind.

It had returned again and again in spite of her.

She had felt the necessity of consulting the highest medical authority; and had shrunk, at the same time, from alarming her daughters by summoning a London physician to the house.

The medical opinion, sought under the circumstances already mentioned, had now been obtained.