e
the companions of fools, or the playthings of men. But of all the
simpletons, the women who were trying to do something for woman, as they
called it, trying to exemplify and illustrate a cause, were the silliest
that I came across. I never happened to have met a woman doctor before
you came to me; but I had imagined them, and I could n't believe in you
when I saw you. You were not supersensitive, you were not presumptuous,
and you gave up, not because you distrusted yourself, but because your
patient distrusted you. That was right: I should have done the same
thing myself. Under my direction, you have shown yourself faithful,
docile, patient, intelligent beyond anything I have seen. I have watched
you, and I know; and I know what your peculiar trials have been from
that woman. You have taught me a lesson,--I 'm not ashamed to say it;
and you've given me a motive. I was wrong to ask you to marry me so that
you might carry out your plans: that was no way to appeal to you. What
I meant was that I might make your plans my own, and that we might carry
them out together. I don't care for making money; I have always been
poor, and I had always expected to be so; and I am not afraid of hard
work. There is n't any self-sacrifice you've dreamed of that I wouldn't
gladly and proudly share with you. You can't do anything by yourself,
but we could do anything together. If you have any scruple about giving
up your theory of medicine, you needn't do it; and the State Medical
Association may go to the devil. I've said my say. What do you say?"

She looked all round, as if seeking escape from a mesh suddenly flung
about her, and then she looked imploringly up at him. "I have nothing to
say," she whispered huskily. "I can't answer you."

"Well, that's all I ask," he said, moving a few steps, away, and
suffering her to rise. "Don't answer me now. Take time,--all the time
you want, all the time there is."

"No," she said, rising, and gathering some strength from the sense of
being on foot again. "I don't mean that. I mean that I don't--I can't
consent."

"You don't believe in me? You don't think I would do it?"

"I don't believe in myself. I have no right to doubt you. I know that I
ought to honor you for what you propose."

"I don't think it calls for any great honor. Of course I shouldn't
propose it to every lady physician." He smiled with entire serenity
and self-possession. "Tell me one thing: was there ever a time when you
wo