ou deceive yourself,--if you were a boy nothing short of my
authority would bring you, in the first place."

"I have not the slightest doubt the power would have been found equal
to the resistance," said the doctor bowing.

"Neither have I."

"Well!--" said the doctor laughing a little peculiarly,--"in that case
I should have been here. Now I have a fancy to know what you call
pleasant things, Linden. You speak with a mouth full--as if there were
plenty of them."

"Yes, there are plenty," Mr. Linden said, moving a little and resting
his face on his hand as if he felt tired; "but we were talking of only
two this morning,--heaven, and the way thither."

Dr. Harrison looked at him steadily.

"You are tired," he said gently. "You shall not talk any more to me
now, and I shall forbid your holding any more levees to-day. After
which," he added, the humourous expression coming back, "I shall expect
to hear a proclamation going through Pattaquasset, that, like the
knights of old, you are ready for all comers!--Well--I'll come and see
you to-morrow; and as long as you'll let me, as a friend; for the
pleasure of talking. You can have it all your own way, with a few more
days' strength. Will you have a levee to-morrow at the same hour?"

A little play of the lips came with the answer--

"Will that suit you?--I'll send you word." Then looking up at the
doctor with a different expression, he added, "What do you think of my
pleasant things?"

"Hardly in my line--" said the doctor with a carelessness which was
somewhat dubious in its character. "It is very well for those who find
the subject pleasant. I confess I have never studied it much."

"Then you have but half learned your profession." But the words were so
spoken that they could not give offence.

Neither did the doctor seem disposed to take offence.

"I'll ask you what you mean by that to-morrow," he said very
pleasantly. "I thought I had learned my profession. Have you learned
yours?" The last words were with a keen eye to the answer.

"Some people dignify my present business with that name," Mr. Linden
said.

"Well, you shall discourse to me more at length to-morrow," said the
doctor. "Shall I come later?"

"I don't expect to be in school to-morrow, so you may name your own
time," Mr. Linden said with a pleasant look. "But remember,--a
physician who has no skill to feel the pulse of the mind, no remedies
that can reach its fever or its chills,--is but half