diffident, with a hint of lurking mirthfulness about his eyes and
lips. And to-day he was in the best of humours; professional
prospects, as he had just explained to Alice, were more encouraging
than hitherto; for twenty years he had practised medicine at
Clevedon, but with such trifling emolument that the needs of his
large family left him scarce a margin over expenditure; now, at the
age of forty-nine--it was 1872--he looked forward with a larger
hope. Might he not reasonably count on ten or fifteen more years of
activity? Clevedon was growing in repute as a seaside resort; new
houses were rising; assuredly his practice would continue to extend.

'I don't think girls ought to be troubled about this kind of thing,'
he added apologetically. 'Let men grapple with the world; for, as
the old hymn says, "'tis their nature to." I should grieve indeed if
I thought my girls would ever have to distress themselves about
money matters. But I find I have got into the habit, Alice, of
talking to you very much as I should talk with your dear mother if
she were with us.'

Mrs. Madden, having given birth to six daughters, had fulfilled her
function in this wonderful world; for two years she had been resting
in the old churchyard that looks upon the Severn sea. Father and
daughter sighed as they recalled her memory. A sweet, calm,
unpretending woman; admirable in the domesticities; in speech and
thought distinguished by a native refinement, which in the most
fastidious eyes would have established her claim to the title of
lady. She had known but little repose, and secret anxieties told
upon her countenance long before the final collapse of health.

'And yet,' pursued the doctor--doctor only by courtesy--when he