r Aunt Clotilde in the gay days of her
triumphs as a beauty and a brilliant and adored young woman, but it
seemed that they were also very curious, and Monsieur de Rochemont wished
his friend to see them. When Elizabeth went downstairs she found them
examining them together.

"They must be put somewhere for safe keeping," Uncle Bertrand was saying.
"It should have been done before. I will attend to it."

The gentleman with the kind eyes looked at Elizabeth with an
interested expression as she came into the room. Her slender little
figure in its black velvet dress, her delicate little face with its
large soft sad eyes, the gentle gravity of her manner made her seem
quite unlike other children.

He did not seem simply to find her amusing, as her Uncle Bertrand did.
She was always conscious that behind Uncle Bertrand's most serious
expression there was lurking a faint smile as he watched her, but this
visitor looked at her in a different way. He was a doctor, she
discovered. Dr. Norris, her uncle called him, and Elizabeth wondered if
perhaps his profession had not made him quick of sight and kind.

She felt that it must be so when she heard him talk at dinner. She found
that he did a great deal of work among the very poor---that he had a
hospital, where he received little children who were ill--who had perhaps
met with accidents, and could not be taken care of in their wretched
homes. He spoke most frequently of terrible quarters, which he called
Five Points; the greatest poverty and suffering was there. And he spoke
of it with such eloquent sympathy, that even Uncle Bertrand began to
listen with interest.

"Come," he said, "you are a rich, idle fellow; De Rochemont, and we want
rich, idle fellows to come and look into all this and do something for
us. You must let me take you with me some day."

"It would disturb me too much, my good Norris," said Uncle Bertrand, with
a slight shudder. "I should not enjoy my dinner after it."

"Then go without your dinner," said Dr. Norris. "These people do. You
have too many dinners. Give up one."

Uncle Bertrand shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

"It is Elizabeth who fasts," he said. "Myself, I prefer to dine. And yet,
some day, I may have the fancy to visit this place with you."

Elizabeth could scarcely have been said to dine this evening. She could
not eat. She sat with her large, sad eyes fixed upon Dr. Norris' face as
he talked. Every word he uttered sank deep into her