constitution; and addressed them, with characteristic caution, to the
family doctor, at a private interview.

The result of this conference was far from being satisfactory. The
doctor was suspiciously careful not to commit himself: he said that he
hoped the spine was no longer in danger of being affected; but that he
could not conscientiously express himself as feeling quite sure about
it. Having repeated these discouraging words to his son, old Mr. Blyth
delicately and considerately, but very plainly, asked Valentine
whether, after what he had heard, he still honestly thought that he
would be consulting his own happiness, or the lady's happiness either,
by marrying her at all? or, at least, by marrying her at a time when
the doctor could not venture to say that the poor girl might not be
even yet in danger of becoming an invalid for life?

Valentine, as usual, persisted at first in looking exclusively at the
bright side of the question, and made light of the doctor's authority
accordingly.

"Lavvie and I love each other dearly," he said with a little trembling
in his voice, but with perfect firmness of manner. "I hope in God that
what you seem to fear will never happen; but even if it should, I shall
never repent having married her, for I know that I am just as ready to
be her nurse as to be her husband. I am willing to take her in sickness
and in health, as the Prayer-Book says. In my home she would have such
constant attention paid to her wants and comforts as she could not have
at her father's, with his large family and his poverty, poor fellow!
And this is reason enough, I think, for my marrying her, even if the
worst should take place. But I always have hoped for the best, as you
know, father: and I mean to go on hoping for poor Lavvie, just the same