some acquaintance,
sent up a card with a pencilled message on it to the effect that he
would be glad to see Dr. James.

"Run, Mildred," said her father, "and tell Mr. Carr that I will be
with him in a minute. It will never do to see a new patient in this
coat."

Mildred departed, and, gliding into the gloomy consulting-room like a
sunbeam, delivered her message to the old gentleman, who appeared to
be in some pain, and prepared to return.

"Don't go away," almost shouted the aged patient; "I have crushed my
finger in a door, and it hurts most confoundedly. You are something to
look at in this hole, and distract my attention."

Mildred thought to herself that this was an odd way of paying a
compliment, if it was meant for one; but then, old gentlemen with
crushed fingers are not given to weighing their words.

"Are you Dr. James' daughter?" he asked, presently.

"Yes, sir."

"Ugh, I have lived most of my life in Sherborne Lane, and never saw
anything half so pretty in it before. Confound this finger!"

At this moment the doctor himself arrived, and wanted to dismiss
Mildred, but Mr. Carr, who was a headstrong old gentleman, vowed that
no one else should hold his injured hand whilst it was dressed, and so
she stayed just long enough for him to fall as completely in love with
her shell-like face was though he had been twenty instead of nearly
seventy.

Now, Mr. Carr was not remarkable for good looks, and in addition to
having seen out so many summers, had also buried two wives. It will,
therefore, be clear that he was scarcely the suitor that a lovely
girl, conscious of capacities for deep affection, would have selected
of her own free will; but, on the other hand, he was honest and kind-
hearted, and, what was more to the point, perhaps the wealthiest wine-
merchant in the city. Mildred resisted as long as she could, but want
is a hard master, and a father's arguments are difficult to answer,
and in the end she married him, and, what is more, made him a good and
faithful wife.

She never had any cause to regret it, for he was kindness itself
towards her, and when he died, some five years afterwards, having no
children of his own, he left her sole legatee of all his enormous
fortune, bound up by no restrictions as to re-marriage. About this
time also her father died, and she was left as much alone in the world
as it is possible for a young and pretty woman, possessing in her own
right between twenty and thirt