tance Blair
that was. You will have to be exceedingly well fortified, my boy, if you
expect to withstand the clever Constance. She is the refinement of
maternal ambition. She will not be satisfied to have her daughter married
to a mere practice. She didn't bring her up for that. She will ask me to
come and see her within the next few days. What am I to say to her when
she asks me if I expect you and Anne to live on what you can earn out of
your ridiculous profession?"

"I think that's all pretty well understood," said Braden easily. "You do
Mrs. Tresslyn an injustice, granddaddy. She says it will be a splendid
thing for Anne to struggle along as we shall have to do for a while.
Character building, is the way she puts it."

"Just the same, I shall expect a message from her before the engagement is
announced," said the old man drily.

A hard glitter had come into his eyes. He loved this good-looking, earnest
grandson of his, and he was troubled. He lay awake half the night thinking
over this piece of not unexpected news.

The next morning at breakfast he said to Braden: "See here, my boy, you
spoke to me recently about your desire to spend a year in and about the
London hospitals before settling down to the real business of life. I've
been thinking it over. You can't very well afford to pay for these
finishing touches after you've begun struggling along on your own hook,
and trying to make both ends meet on a slender income, so I'd suggest that
you take this next year as a gift from me and spend it on the other side,
working with my good friend, Sir George Bascombe, the greatest of all the
English surgeons. I don't believe you will ever regret it."

Braden was overjoyed. "I should like nothing better, grandfather. By jove,
you are good to me. You--"

"It is only right and just that I should give to the last of my race the
chance to be a credit to it." There was something cryptic in the remark,
but naturally it escaped Braden's notice. "You are the only one of the
Thorpes left, my boy. I was an only son and, strange as it may appear, I
was singularly without avuncular relatives. It is not surprising,
therefore, that I should desire to make a great man out of you. You shall
not be handicapped by any failure on my part to do the right thing by you.
If it is in my power to safeguard you, it is my duty to exercise that
power. Nothing must be allowed to stand in the way or to obstruct your
progress. Nothing must be allowe