oice! You haven't
your choice at all, sir! When God gets ready for you to die he'll let
you know, sir! And you've no right to trifle with his mercy in the
meanwhile. I'm not a man to teach men to whine after each other for aid;
but every principle has its limitations, Mr. Richling. You say you went
over the whole subject. Yes; well, didn't you strike the fact that
suicide is an affront to civilization and humanity?"

"Why, Doctor!" cried the other two, rising also. "We're not going to
commit suicide."

"No," retorted he, "you're not. That's what I came here to tell you. I'm
here to prevent it."

"Doctor," exclaimed Mary, the big tears standing in her eyes, and the
Doctor melting before them like wax, "it's not so bad as it looks. I
wash--some--because it pays so much better than sewing. I find I'm
stronger than any one would believe. I'm stronger than I ever was before
in my life. I am, indeed. I _don't_ wash _much_. And it's only for the
present. We'll all be laughing at this, some time, together." She began
a small part of the laugh then and there.

"You'll do it no more," the Doctor replied. He drew out his pocket-book.
"Mr. Richling, will you please send me through the mail, or bring me,
your note for fifty dollars,--at your leisure, you know,--payable on
demand?" He rummaged an instant in the pocket-book, and extended his
hand with a folded bank-note between his thumb and finger. But Richling
compressed his lips and shook his head, and the two men stood silently
confronting each other. Mary laid her hand upon her husband's shoulder
and leaned against him, with her eyes on the Doctor's face.

"Come, Richling,"--the Doctor smiled,--"your friend Ristofalo did not
treat you in this way."

"I never treated Ristofalo so," replied Richling, with a smile tinged
with bitterness. It was against himself that he felt bitter; but the
Doctor took it differently, and Richling, seeing this, hurried to
correct the impression.

"I mean I lent him no such amount as that."

"It was just one-fiftieth of that," said Mary.

"But you gave liberally, without upbraiding," said the Doctor.

"Oh, no, Doctor! no!" exclaimed she, lifting the hand that lay on her
husband's near shoulder and reaching it over to the farther one. "Oh! a
thousand times no! John never meant that. Did you, John?"

"How could I?" said John. "No!" Yet there was confession in his look. He
had not meant it, but he had felt it.

Dr. Sevier sat down, motioned