`` Yes , I think it would be the wisest thing , '' said Alexander Abraham -- not disagreeably this time , but reflectively , as if there was some doubt about the matter . `` I 'll let you out by the back door . Then the -- ahem ! -- the dog will not interfere with you . Please go away quietly and quickly . '' I wondered if Alexander Abraham thought I would go away with a whoop . But I said nothing , thinking this the most dignified course of conduct , and I followed him out to the kitchen as quickly and quietly as he could have wished . Such a kitchen ! Alexander Abraham opened the door -- which was locked -- just as a buggy containing two men drove into the yard . `` Too late ! '' he exclaimed in a tragic tone . I understood that something dreadful must have happened , but I did not care , since , as I fondly supposed , it did not concern me . I pushed out past Alexander Abraham -- who was looking as guilty as if he had been caught burglarizing -- and came face to face with the man who had sprung from the buggy . It was old Dr. Blair , from Carmody , and he was looking at me as if he had found me shoplifting . `` My dear Peter , '' he said gravely , `` I am VERY sorry to see you here -- very sorry indeed . '' I admit that this exasperated me . Besides , no man on earth , not even my own family doctor , has any right to `` My dear Peter '' me ! `` There is no loud call for sorrow , doctor , '' I said loftily . `` If a woman , forty-eight years of age , a member of the Presbyterian church in good and regular standing , can not call upon one of her Sunday School scholars without wrecking all the proprieties , how old must she be before she can ? '' The doctor did not answer my question .
Instead , he looked reproachfully XXXXX Alexander Abraham .
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