nse.
And you'll be"-- He enclosed the note, directed the envelope, and,
pausing with it still in his hand, turned toward the pair. They rose up.
His rare, sick-room smile hovered about his mouth, and he said:--

"You'll be all the happier--all three of you."

The husband smiled. Mary colored down to the throat and looked up on the
wall, where Harvey was explaining to his king the circulation of the
blood. There was quite a pause, neither side caring to utter the first
adieu.

"If a physician could call any hour his own," presently said the Doctor,
"I should say I would come down to the boat and see you off. But I might
fail in that. Good-by!"

"Good-by, Doctor!"--a little tremor in the voice,--"take care of John."

The tall man looked down into the upturned blue eyes.

"Good-by!" He stooped toward her forehead, but she lifted her lips and
he kissed them. So they parted.

The farewell with Mrs. Riley was mainly characterized by a generous and
sincere exchange of compliments and promises of remembrance. Some tears
rose up; a few ran over.

At the steam-boat wharf there were only the pair themselves to cling one
moment to each other and then wave that mute farewell that looks through
watery eyes and sticks in the choking throat. Who ever knows what
good-by means?

* * *

"Doctor," said Richling, when he came to accept those terms in the
Doctor's proposition which applied more exclusively to himself,--"no,
Doctor, not that way, please." He put aside the money proffered him.
"This is what I want to do: I will come to your house every morning and
get enough to eat to sustain me through the day, and will continue to do
so till I find work."

"Very well," said the Doctor.

The arrangement went into effect. They never met at dinner; but almost
every morning the Doctor, going into the breakfast-room, met Richling
just risen from his earlier and hastier meal.

"Well? Anything yet?"

"Nothing yet."

And, unless there was some word from Mary, nothing more would be said.
So went the month of November.

But at length, one day toward the close of the Doctor's office hours, he
noticed the sound of an agile foot springing up his stairs three steps
at a stride, and Richling entered, panting and radiant.

"Doctor, at last! At last!"

"At last, what?"

"I've found employment! I have, indeed! One line from you, and the place
is mine! A good place, Doctor, and one that I can fill. The very thing