Sadie sealed and directed a letter to Ester and ran with it down
stairs. Dr. Douglass stood in the doorway, hat in hand.
"Shall I have the pleasure of being your carrier?" he said
courteously.
"Do you suppose you are to be trusted?" Sadie questioned, as she
quietly deposited the letter in his hat.
"That depends in a great measure on whether you repose trust in me.
The world is safer in general than we are inclined to think it. Who
lives in that little birdsnest of a cottage just across the way?"
"A dear old gentleman, Mr. Vane," Sadie answered, her voice taking
a tender tone, as it always did when any chance word reminded her of
Florence. "That is he standing in the gateway. Doesn't he look like a
grand old patriarch?"
As they looked Dr. Van Anden drove suddenly from around the corner,
and reined in his horses in front of the opposite gateway. They could
hear his words distinctly.
"Mr. Vane, let me advise you to avoid this evening breeze; it is
blowing up strongly from the river."
"Is Dr. Van Anden the old gentleman's nurse, or guardian, or what?"
questioned Sadie's companion.
"Physician," was her brief reply. Then, after a moment, she laughed
mischievously. "You don't like Dr.
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