And to-day he was in the best of
humours; professional prospects, as he had just explained to Alice,
were more encouraging than hitherto; for twenty years he had practised
medicine at Clevedon, but with such trifling emolument that the needs
of his large family left him scarce a margin over expenditure; now, at
the age of forty-nine--it was 1872--he looked forward with a larger
hope. Might he not reasonably count on ten or fifteen more years of
activity? Clevedon was growing in repute as a seaside resort; new
houses were rising; assuredly his practice would continue to extend.

'I don't think girls ought to be troubled about this kind of thing,' he
added apologetically. 'Let men grapple with the world; for, as the old
hymn says, "'tis their nature to." I should grieve indeed if I thought
my girls would ever have to distress themselves about money matters.
But I find I have got into the habit, Alice, of talking to you very
much as I should talk with your dear mother if she were with us.'

Mrs. Madden, having given birth to six daughters, had fulfilled her
function in this wonderful world; for two years she had been resting in
the old churchyard that looks upon the Severn sea. Father and daughter
sighed as they recalled her memory. A sweet, calm, unpretending woman;
admirable in the domesticities; in speech and thought distinguished by
a native refinement, which in the most fastidious eyes would have
established her claim to the title of lady. She had known but little
repose, and secret anxieties told upon her countenance long before the
final collapse of health.

'And yet,' pursued the doctor--doctor only by courtesy--when he had
stooped to pluck and examine a flower, 'I made a point of never
discussing these matters with her. As no doubt you guess, life has been
rather an uphill journey with us. But the home must be guarded against
sordid cares to the last possible moment; nothing upsets me more than
the sight of those poor homes where wife and children are obliged to
talk from morning to night of how the sorry earnings shall be laid out.
No, no; women, old or young, should never have to think about money.

The magnificent summer sunshine, and the western breeze that tasted of
ocean, heightened his natural cheeriness. Dr. Madden fell into a
familiar strain of prescience.

'There will come a day, Alice, when neither man nor woman is troubled
with such sordid care. Not yet awhile; no, no; but the day will come.
Human