ords softened off
almost into soliloquy.

The banker spoke forcibly:--

"Yes, there are two quite distinct kinds of poverty. One is an accident
of the moment; the other is an inner condition of the individual"--

"Of course it is," said sister Jane's brother-in-law, who felt it a
little to have been contradicted on the side of kindness by the
hard-spoken Doctor. "Certainly! it's a deficiency of inner resources
or character, and what to do with it is no simple question."

"That's what I was about to say," resumed the banker; "at least, when
the poverty is of that sort. And what discourages kind people is that
that's the sort we commonly see. It's a relief to meet the other,
Doctor, just as it's a relief to a physician to encounter a case of
simple surgery."

"And--and," said the brother-in-law, "what is your rule about plain
almsgiving to the difficult sort?"

"My rule," replied the banker, "is, don't do it. Debt is slavery, and
there is an ugly kink in human nature that disposes it to be content
with slavery. No, sir; gift-making and gift-taking are twins of a bad
blood." The speaker turned to Dr. Sevier for approval; but, though the
Doctor could not gainsay the fraction of a point, he was silent. A lady
near the hostess stirred softly both under and above the board. In her
private chamber she would have yawned. Yet the banker spoke again:--

"Help the old, I say. You are pretty safe there. Help the sick. But as
for the young and strong,--now, no man could be any poorer than I was at
twenty-one,--I say be cautious how you smooth that hard road which is
the finest discipline the young can possibly get."

"If it isn't _too_ hard," chirped the son of the host.

"Too hard? Well, yes, if it isn't too hard. Still I say, hands off; you
needn't turn your back, however." Here the speaker again singled out Dr.
Sevier. "Watch the young man out of one corner of your eye; but make him
swim!"

"Ah-h!" said the ladies.

"No, no," continued the banker; "I don't say let him drown; but I take
it, Doctor, that your alms, for instance, are no alms if they put the
poor fellow into your debt and at your back."

"To whom do you refer?" asked Dr. Sevier. Whereat there was a burst of
laughter, which was renewed when the banker charged the physician with
helping so many persons, "on the sly," that he couldn't tell which one
was alluded to unless the name were given.

"Doctor," said the hostess, seeing it was high time the convers