''
``If this be true,'' said Mr Gray, looking towards
the alleged officer, ``you have taken a singular
duty on you. It is neither my habit to
deny my own actions, nor to oppose the laws of
the land. There is a lady in this house slowly recovering
from confinement, having become under
this roof the mother of a healthy child. If she be
the person described in this warrant, and this gentleman's
daughter, I must surrender her to the laws
of the country.''
Here the Esculapian militia were once more in
motion.
``Surrender, Doctor Gray! It's a shame to hear
you speak, and you that lives by women and weans,
abune your other means!'' so exclaimed his fair
better part.
``I wonder to hear the Doctor!''---said the
younger nurse; ``there's no a wife in the town
would believe it o' him.''
``I aye thought the Doctor was a man till this
moment,'' said Luckie Simson; ``but I believe
him now to be an auld wife, little baulder than
mysell; and I dinna wonder now that poor Mrs
Gray------''
``Hold your peace, you foolish women,'' said the
Doctor. ``Do you think this business is not bad
enough already, that you are making it worse with
your senseless claver?*---Gentlemen, this is a
* Tattling.
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