universe
maker, and that we may deduce from it some of His attributes, His power,
His wisdom, His forethought for small wants, His providing of luxuries
for His creatures. On the other hand, do not let us be disingenuous
enough to shirk the mystery which lies in pain, in cruelty, in all which
seems to be a slur upon His work. The best that we can say for them is
to hope that they are not as bad as they seem, and possibly lead to some
higher end. The voices of the ill-used child and of the tortured animal
are the hardest of all for the philosopher to answer.

Good-bye, old chap! It is quite delightful to think that on one point at
least we are in agreement.

XIV. OAKLEY VILLAS, BIRCHESPOOL, 15th January, 1883.

You write reproachfully, my dear Bertie, and you say that absence must
have weakened our close friendship, since I have not sent you a line
during this long seven months. The real truth of the matter is that
I had not the heart to write to you until I could tell you something
cheery; and something cheery has been terribly long in coming. At
present I can only claim that the cloud has perhaps thinned a little at
the edges.

You see by the address of this letter that I still hold my ground, but
between ourselves it has been a terrible fight, and there have been
times when that last plank of which old Whitehall wrote seemed to be
slipping out of my clutch. I have ebbed and flowed, sometimes with a
little money, sometimes without. At my best I was living hard, at my
worst I was very close upon starvation. I have lived for a whole day
upon the crust of a loaf, when I had ten pounds in silver in the drawer
of my table. But those ten pounds had been most painfully scraped
together for my quarter's rent, and I would have tried twenty-four hours
with a tight leather belt before I would have broken in upon it. For two
days I could not raise a stamp to send a letter. I have smiled when I
have read in my evening paper of the privations of our fellows in Egypt.
Their broken victuals would have been a banquet to me. However, what
odds how you take your carbon and nitrogen and oxygen, as long as you DO
get it? The garrison of Oakley Villa has passed the worst, and there is
no talk of surrender.

It was not that I have had no patients. They have come in as well as
could be expected. Some, like the little old maid, who was the first,
never returned. I fancy that a doctor who opened his own door forfeited
their confid