ladylike manner. Now, however, she wished that she
could do or say something aggressively mannish, for she felt herself
dwindling away to the merest femininity, under a scrutiny which had its
fascination, whether agreeable or disagreeable. "You must," he said,
with really unwarrantable patronage, "have found that the study of
medicine has its difficulties,--you must have been very strongly drawn
to it."

"Oh no, not at all; I had rather an aversion at first," she replied,
with the instant superiority of a woman where the man suffers any topic
to become personal. "Why did you think I was drawn to it?"

"I don't know--I don't know that I thought so," he stammered. "I believe
I intended to ask," he added bluntly; but she had the satisfaction of
seeing him redden, and she did not volunteer anything in his relief. She
divined that it would leave him with an awkward sense of defeat if he
quitted the subject there; and in fact he had determined that he would
not. "Some of our ladies take up the study abroad," he said; and he went
on to speak, with a real deference, of the eminent woman who did the
American name honor by the distinction she achieved in the schools of
Paris.

"I have never been abroad," said Grace.

"No?" he exclaimed. "I thought all American ladies had been abroad";
and now he said, with easy recognition of her resolution not to help him
out, "I suppose you have your diploma from the Philadelphia school."

"No," she returned, "from the New York school,--the homoeopathic school
of New York."

Dr. Mulbridge instantly sobered, and even turned a little pale, but he
did not say anything. He remained looking at her as if she had suddenly
changed from a piquant mystery to a terrible dilemma.

She moved toward the door. "Then I may expect you," she said, "about the
middle of the afternoon."

He did not reply; he stumbled upon the chairs in following her a pace
or two, with a face of acute distress. Then he broke out with "I can't
come! I can't consult with you!"

She turned and looked at him with astonishment, which he did his best to
meet. Her astonishment congealed into hauteur, and then dissolved into
the helplessness of a lady who has been offered a rudeness; but still
she did not speak. She merely looked at him, while he halted and
stammered on.

"Personally, I--I--should be--obliged--I should feel honored--I--I--It
has nothing to do with your--your--being a--a--a--woman lady. I should
not care for th