dear old lady had made up her mind that I should be a doctor, and though I
would rather have been a farmer or a country gentleman (the latter for
choice), I made no objection; and so long as I remained at school she had
no reason to complain of my conduct. I satisfied my masters and passed my
preliminary examination creditably and without difficulty, to my aunt's
great delight. She protested that she was proud of me, and rewarded my
diligence and cleverness with a five-pound note. But after I became a
student at Guy's I gave her much trouble, and got myself into some sad
scrapes. I spent her present, and something more, in hiring mounts, for I
was passionately fond of riding, especially to hounds, and ran into debt
with a neighboring livery-stable keeper to the tune of twenty pounds. I
would sometimes borrow the greengrocer's pony, for I was not particular
what I rode, so long as it had four legs. When I could obtain a mount
neither for love nor on credit, I went after the harriers on foot. The
result, as touching my health and growth, was all that could be desired.
As touching my studies, however, it was less satisfactory. I was spun
twice, both in my anatomy and physiology. Miss Ophelia, though sorely
grieved, was very indulgent, and had she lived, I am afraid that I should
never have got my diploma. But when I was twenty-one and she seventy-five,
my dear aunt died, leaving me all her property (which made an income of
about four hundred a year), with the proviso that unless, within three
years of her death, I obtained the double qualification, the whole of her
estate was to pass to Guy's Hospital. In the mean time the trustees were
empowered to make me an allowance of two guineas a week and defray all my
hospital expenses.

On this, partly because I was loath to lose so goodly a heritage, partly,
I hope, from worthier motives, I buckled-to in real earnest, and before I
was four-and-twenty I could write after my name the much coveted capitals
M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. All this while I had not once crossed a horse or looked