"
"Were you related, then, to Birch?" asked Miss Peyton, observing her to
pause.
"Why," returned the housekeeper, hesitating a little, "I thought we were
as good as so. I wonder if I have no claim on the house and garden;
though they say, now it is Harvey's, it will surely be confiscated."
Turning to Lawton, who had been sitting in one posture, with his
piercing eyes lowering at her through his thick brows, in silence,
"Perhaps this gentleman knows--he seems to take an interest in
my story."
"Madam," said the trooper, bowing very low, "both you and the tale are
extremely interesting"--Katy smiled involuntarily--"but my humble
knowledge is limited to the setting of a squadron in the field, and
using it when there. I beg leave to refer you to Dr. Archibald
Sitgreaves, a gentleman of universal attainments and unbounded
philanthropy; the very milk of human sympathies, and a mortal foe to all
indiscriminate cutting."
The surgeon drew up, and employed himself in whistling a low air, as he
looked over some phials on a table; but the housekeeper, turning to him
with an inclination of the head, continued,--
"I suppose, sir, a woman has no dower in her husband's property, unless
they be actually married."
It was a maxim with Dr. Sitgreaves, that no species of knowledge was to
be despised; and, consequently, he was an empiric in everything but his
profession.
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