Heavy rain obliged her to wait for a fitter opportunity.

It was only on the third day that the sky cleared, and the weather was favourable again.

On a sunshiny autumn morning, with a fine keen air blowing, she ordered the open carriage.

Noticing, while Fanny Mere was helping her to dress, that the girl looked even paler than usual, she said, with her customary kindness to persons dependent on her, "You look as if a drive in the fresh air would do you good--you shall go with me to the farm, and see Rhoda Bennet." When they stopped at the house, the farmer's wife appeared, attending a gentleman to the door.

Iris at once recognised the local medical man.
"You're not in attendance, I hope, on Rhoda Bennet ?" she said.
The doctor acknowledged that there had been some return of the nervous derangement from which the girl suffered.