ue, a cheat, an
oppressor of the helpless, when I look at Pleurisy."

"Horace," the minister said kindly, with his level gray eyes fixed
thoughtfully on his friend's handsome face, "a man in either your
calling or mine has no right to ask himself how he feels. Don't feel
your own pulse too much. It is disquieting. It is for us to go on,
never faltering and never looking behind."

"In other words, to make good, and never mind the fans," the doctor
smiled. Then he became serious. "But Grantley, I am not always so sure
I am right as you are. You see a sinner is always a sinner and in
danger of damnation, for which there is but one cure, but a sick man
may have quinsy or he may have diphtheria, and the treatment is
different. But oh! Grantley, I wish I had that Scotch-gray confidence
in myself that you have. If you were a doctor you would tell a man he
had typhoid, and he'd proceed to have it, even if he had only set out
to have an ingrowing toe-nail. But my patients have a decided will of
their own. There's young Ab Cowan--they sent for me last night to go
out to see him. He has a bad attack of quinsy, but it is the strangest
case I ever saw."

The gaiety had died out of the young man's face, and he looked
perplexed and anxious.

"I do wish the old doctor and I were on speaking terms," he concluded.

"And are you not?" the minister asked in surprise. "Miss Barner told me
that you had been very kind--and I thought--" There was a flush on the
minister's face, and he hesitated.

"Oh, Miss Barner and I are the best of friends," the doctor said. "I
say, Grantley, hasn't that little girl had one lonely life, and isn't
she the brave little soul!"

The minister was silent, all but his eyes.

The doctor went on:

"'Who hath sorrow, who hath woe, who hath redness of eyes?' Solomon,
wasn't it, who said it was 'they who tarry long at the wine'? I think
he should have added 'those who wait at home.' Don't you think she is a
remarkably beautiful girl, Grantley?" he asked abruptly.

"I do, indeed," the minister answered, giving his friend a searching
glance. "But how about the doctor, why will he not speak to you?" He
was glad of a chance to change the subject.

"I suppose the old man's pride is hurt every time he sees me. He
evidently thinks he is all the medical aid they need around here. But I
do wish he would come with me to see this young Cowan; it's the most
puzzling case I've ever met. There are times, Grantley, when