Even Anna, who took everything for what it seemed, roused herself and more than once remonstrated with her brother upon the course he was pursuing, if he were not in earnest, as something he once said to her made her half suspect.
She had become very intimate with Alice latterly, and as her health improved with the coming of spring, almost every fine day found her at Riverside Cottage, where once she and Mrs.Johnson stumbled upon a confidential chat, having for its subject John and Alice, Anna said nothing against her brother.

She merely spoke of him as kind and affectionate, but the quick-seeing mother detected more than the words implied, and after that the elegant doctor was less welcome to her fireside than, he had been before.
As the winter passed away and spring advanced, he showed no intentions of leaving Snowdon, but on the contrary opened an office in the village, greatly to the surprise of the inhabitants, who remembered his former contempt for any one who could settle down in that dull town, and greatly to the dismay of old Dr.Rogers, who for years had blistered and bled the good people without a fear of rivalry.
"Does Dr.Richards intend locating permanently in Snowdon ?" Mrs.Johnson asked of her daughter as they sat alone one pleasant spring evening.
"His sign would indicate as much," was Alice's reply.
"Mother," she said gently, "you look pale and worried.

You have looked so for some time past.

What is it, mother?
Are you very sick, or are you troubled about me ?" "Is there any reason why I should be troubled about my darling ?" asked the mother.
Alice never had any secrets from her mother, and she answered frankly: "I don't know, unless--unless--mother, why don't you like Dr.Richards ?" The ice was fairly broken now, and very briefly but candidly Mrs.
Johnson told why she did not like him.

He was handsome, refined, educated, and agreeable, she admitted, but still there was something lacking.