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_October 4th_. Here I am! It is not a bit as I imagined, but ever so much nicer. Lorna looks sweet in grown-up things, and she thinks I look sweet in mine. She comes into my bed at nights, and we talk for hours. The house is right in the middle of the town, in a dingy old square, where the trees look more black than green. It is ugly and shabby, but there is plenty of room, which is a good thing, for I am sure it is needed. The doctor sits in his consulting-room all the morning seeing patients, who wait their turn in the dining-room, and if there are a great many you have to be late for lunch, but, as Lorna says, "That means another guinea, so we mustn't grumble!" They are not at all rich, because the six boys cost so much to educate. They are all away at school and college, except the oldest and the youngest, of whom more anon. Dr Forbes is an old love. He has shaggy grey hair, and merry eyes, and the funniest way of talking aloud to himself without knowing what he is saying. At lunch he will keep up a running conversation like this: "Nasty case--yes, nasty case! Poor woman, poor woman! Very little chance--little chance--Very good steak, my dear--an admirable dinner you have given me! Am-pu-ta-tion at eleven--mustn't forget the medicine. Three times a day. A little custard, if you please," and so on, and so on, and the others never take any notice, but eat away as if no one were speaking. Mrs Forbes is large and kind, and shakes when she laughs. I don't think she is clever, exactly, but she's an admirable mother, and lets them do exactly as they like. Wallace isn't bad. He is twenty-four, and fairly good-looking, and not as conceited as men generally are at that age. Personally, I prefer them older, but he evidently approves of me, and that is soothing to the feelings. Julias, surnamed "Midas," is only twelve, and a most amusing character. I asked Lorna and Wallace how he got his nickname, as we sat together over a fire in the old schoolroom the first night. They laughed, and Wallace said--(of course, I call him Dr Wallace, really, but I can't be bothered to write it here)-- "Because everything he touches turns to gold, or, to speak more correctly, copper! He has a genius for accumulating money, and has what we consider quite a vast sum deposited in the savings bank. My father expects him to develop into a great financier, and we hope he may pension off all
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