have taken hold of the Queen's foot?"

"Embarrassed indeed!" said Dick. "I think he has a very cool way of
procuring patients. But, faith, he's chosen a romantic operating-room.
After climbing down these rocks the corns naturally begin to twinge,
and here's the Professor on hand. Behold the march of civilization!"

Bertha did not fall into her brother's vein of badinage, as usual. She
was vexed that the fresh, manly face and blue eyes into which she had
looked belonged to a charlatan, and vexed at herself for being vexed
thereat. It was not so easy, however, to dismiss Professor Hurlbut
from her mind, for Dick had related the incident to the others of the
party, with his own embellishments, and numberless were the jokes to
which it gave rise throughout the day.

Meantime Mr. Bartlett, in happy ignorance of the worst blunder he had
ever made, returned to the hotel. The day previous, at Utica, he had
been annoyed by an itinerant extractor of corns, suppressor of bunions,
and regulator of irregular nails, whose proffered card he had put into
his pocket in order to get rid of the man. It was this card which he
had presented to Miss Morris as his own. On reaching the hotel he
easily ascertained her real name and place of residence, with the
additional fact that the party were to leave for Saratoga on the
morrow. It occurred to him also that Saratoga, in the height of the
season, would be well worth a visit.

In the evening he again happened to meet the lady on the stairs. He
retreated into a corner of the landing, to make room for her ample
skirts, and, catching a glance of curious interest for her hazel eyes,
ventured to say: "Good-evening, Miss Law-ris!" suddenly correcting her
name in the middle. Bertha, in spite of the womanly dignity which she
could very well summon to her aid, could not suppress a fragment of gay
laughter, in which the supposed Professor joined. A slight inclination
of the lovely head acknowledged his salutation.

The next morning Miss Bertha Morris left, with her party, for Saratoga;
and after allowing a day to intervene, in order to avoid the appearance
of design, Mr. Henry Bartlett followed. He did not admit to himself in
the least that this movement was prompted by love; but he was aware of
an intense desire to make her acquaintance. The earnestness which this
desire infused into his nature gave him courage; the man within him was
beginning to wake and stir; and a boyhood of chara