Dr. Breen's Practice

st of his time at Jocelyn's, where he kept his mare for use in going upon errands for Mrs. Maynard. Grace saw him constantly, and he was always doing little things for her with a di

nsatiable of them. She took a pleasure in these attentions, as if they had been for some one else. In this alien sense she liked to be followed up with a chai

she had fallen into the habit of going to him with difficulties. He had a prompt common sense that made him very useful in emergencies, and a sympathy or an insight that was quick in suggestions and expedients. Perhaps she overrated other qualities of his in her admiration of

r. Libby?" she asked,

e matter?" he d

ng downcast," she c

n't suppose it would be very polite, under the circ

n uses, not because she would have chosen it, but because she thinks that he has an exact intention in it, which cou

en, "How did you know

it was time. What are you keeping bac

keep back. But there is n't anything. There have n't been any a

hy

d be equal to it,

kly found comfort in the praise which s

hy I should n'

not fit to be

you

g," she said. "But I thank you, thank you ve

an't think of everything. I've been trying to find out something. I'm going over to Leyden, now, to try to wake up somebody in Cheyenne who knows Maynard." He looked ruefully at Grace, who listened with anxious unintelligen

e you going?

" he answere

same

ut to rights. She wa

looking down at her in the chair into wh

all have the tide with me both ways. I can mak

hou

es

as the same ascetic nature would once have found in fasting or the scourge, prevailed with her. She rose. "Mr. L

eeze; just right. Yo

ough! I should not care if it stormed! I hope i

's prayer, and went down into Mrs. Maynard's room, and insinuated misgivings in which the sick woman found so much reason that they began for the first time to recognize each other's good qualities. They decided that the treatm

rooms, Grace met no one on the beach but Miss Gleason and Mrs. Alger, who rose f

o Leyden?" he asked joc

you're going?" Miss Gle

rtainly.

you are

she might have nothing to do but admire

thing," said the elder wo

she does it," murmured Miss

it for pleasure,"

returned Miss Gl

Mr. Libby se

ver marry HIM!" s

empting gave her a buoyancy long unfelt. She laughed in gayety of heart as she helped the young man draw his dory down the sand, and then took her place at one end while he gave it the last push and then leaped in at the ot

had a man to

u," he said, looking up at her aslant. "Are you afraid to trust my

and the light wind filled it. Libby made the sheet fast, and, sitting down in the stern on the other side, took the tiller and headed the boat toward the town that shimmered in the

he said, looking into her

d a little. "Oh, I am better th

hour between us and news or no news from Maynard, and I sho

oke, if that will he

reality. But yo

why

of smoking in your presence. And we take

ings we do dream of people. But am I so

acco and some cigarette papers, and putting the

fted his eyes from his work, on which he

g your skill,"

as worth a voyage

thought the voya

. She took them and made a cigarette. "It took me a whole day to learn to make bad

oke it, if you wan

e more? I can't sm

," she said, offerin

n. I'll s

and scanned the beautiful bay, which they had almost wholly to themselves. They passed a collier lagging in the deep channel, and signalling for a pilot to t

ow them?"

ies like to take these lib

a self-scornful curl of the lip, which presently softened

han a sail. It is all the world while it lasts.

bay, roughened everywhere by the breeze, but yellowish green in the channels and dark with the thick growth of eel-grass in the shallows; t

she said, still looking at the sk

would n't,"

ve times when you are sorry that you ever tried to

times,-when I wish that I

not having tried to do anything; but to be ashamed of havi

her to further confidence; and women like men who have this w

t have never tried at all. If you could, that would be some consolat

deal like failure from the inside. It must be a poor creature that comes up to his own mark. The best way is

in thinking about y

w and then. But I soon get through: t

ing in her earnestness: it was there that her charm lay. "I want

ing from the water, and flashing under it again at sight of them with a swish that sent the spray into the air. She sprang to her feet. "Oh, look at those things! Look at them! Look at t

l of them. Did you never see

e shouted; as one of them glanced sadly at her over its shoulder, and

hey started at his voice, and wriggling and twisting and bumping themselves over the earth to the water's edge, they plunged in. "Their walk isn't so graceful as their swim.

h her hand pressed h

y ever k

o take that

s murder!" She withdrew

ow tide, about ten o'clock, one night, and got between the water and the

t?" she demanded,

he tide came in,

glad o

nk y

you want

to ask you to sit on this side," he added, loosening the sheet and preparing to shift th

be late," she said, with an

wind falls then, I can get a horse at

el

en, "Did you ever hear them

at is i

ce. "Well!" he said with the reproduction of a strong nasal, "of course I don't believe there's anythi

on, Mr. Adams," she

ad again to one

ky, and began a soft, low, coaxing sibilation between his teeth. "S-s-s-s; s-s-s-s-s-s! Well, it don't stand to reason it can bring the wind-S-s-s-s-s-s-s; s-s-s-s. Why, of course it 's all

l!" cried

we should get it from the look of the sky before I proposed to whistl

rio

be serious just before th

now." He did not insist, and she said presently, "I thought the sailors had a s

r strikes twice in the same place. And I

t behaving wel

re that. She didn't ti

. She abandoned herself with a weak luxury to the respite from suffering and anxiety; she made herself the good comrade of the young man whom perhaps she even tempted to flatter her farther and farther out of the dreariness in which she

ing over the rail, saluted Libby with the significant gravity which one you

. "Do you know your

his tim

a sail. What would he say if you were to

who you are.

thes you came over

pose you la

he courage to do it. B

friend." This also amused her. "I sho

laborate description. I could n't get

nger a vision of gray stone and pale marble. A coal-yard, and a brick locomotive house, and rambling railroad sheds stretched along the water-front. They

arm up these steps and up the wharf; and she kept it as they climbed the sloping elm-shaded village street t

reet which they had ascended. "You can sit here

professionally appropriat

an make a pretense of wanting some soda. It is the proper thing to t

what would have looked like coquettish hesitation in another, while she glanced at the

hat led to the telegraph office. A young man stood at the machine with a cigar in

d. "I've got something here for you." He read: "Despatch

" crie

Bluffs. Want

at 's t

said the

in like the anxious hen whose manner the most awful and mysterious of the elemen

ld account for the delay. Well, Mrs. Maynard doesn't know how long it takes to come from Cheyenne, and we can tell her he's on the way, and has telegraphed." They

e wind

shall have a

of getting a horse. I can go b

hat I think," h

y were once more seated in the boat, and the sail was pulling in the fresh breeze, she turned to hi

don't know in the l

me that the oper

her operator is

d, and fell b

there. They have to have two opera

he had suffered her to be silent as long as she would,

had been experiment

him. "Oh, I dare say you were curious. Don't you suppose I have noticed that men are pu

you would like to b

d n't treat e

treat Mrs.

"You treat me

at? We treat every

, I

ce, because I think you are one of the kind that d

ns," she said. "You are very peculiar!" She waited a whi

are very

ow

are p

ide so ver

in w

. That's very common, nowadays. Why don't you tell me som

r. He seemed to decide that she was jesting,

time. But now I wi

hould like to tell you about myself. I should like to know what

she answered, meeting and then avoi

Being h

no-Or

n't f

I'm not under

e," he began, "I was afr

id of

Maynard told me about you, and I thought you would despise me fo

dee

then he went on: "But I had some little hope you would tolerate me, after

's ever very comfortable to be told

emblance," said Libby, with a laugh of reminiscence. "He was hu

t I have eyes

o," and then turned grav

asked more gently th

n business for my father,-he's an importer and jobber

ow anything

. He thinks there's nothing like buying-except selling. He used to

I did like boats and horses. I thought of a profession, once. But it would n't work. I've been round the world twice, and I've done nothing but enjoy myself since I left college,-or try to. When I first saw you I was hesit

know about

ound that there were goods we could make and sell in the European market cheaper than the

N

; and he wants me t

shall

ink I'm fi

should

ply to this, and he laughed. "I assure you I felt small enough when I heard what you had done, and tho

"to begin my practice there among the operatives' children. I should have done it

evers there in the autumn, with all the low lands that I'

did Mrs. Maynard

the way you did, when you needn't, and

because I was n't obliged to it, an

ted?" h

not, has to make up his mind whether to tolerate me as so

make any,"

our misgiving,

d it, other people might. I

I had been a

wasn't p

the old quarter," she said. "You are talking about me agai

frie

were camp

N

ocelyn's? How did you break the fact to them? What jokes did they make? You

ered her incapable of regarding the pain with which he answered her

t could you

whether I would let any one ma

why

as impossible

impossible?"

e-I lov

raw her gaze. For the endless moment that ensued, her breath was taken

N

no!" she cried, at a demonstration of

iller in his hand he looked past her and gui

ight to-to-say that?" she asked, without the s

you were only th

autiful! And

saw from the first how go

aimed. "I am neither good

ver you are, you are the one woman in t

Lib

a man's profession, that no one would think of you as a woman, as if th

n't think that. I always expec

that somehow made you all the dearer to me. If you had bee

O

me I did mean to speak; because, whatever I was, I

ected you. But you can't say that I ever gave you any

I understand that. There's no reason why you shouldn't. And I can hold my

form of a reproach. "Was it fair, then, to say t

thout looking up, "and I never meant t

No, you are not to blame," she said, at last. "I asked to some with you. Shall I tell you why?" Her voice began to break. In her pity for him and her shame for herself

a sob. He said gently, "I don't suppose you expect me t

, with quivering lips, while she p

s meant to tell you-what I have told; but not

of it any more now," she continued, struggling for her lost composure, with what success appeared in the fr

but oh! how could you for your own sak

will sit here," he added, indicating the place beside him in th

tience while he shifted the sail from side to side, keeping the sheet in his hand for convenience in the frequent changes. He scann

making the sheet fast, and re

de is going out

going out,"

on these flats," she bega

to stay till t

anywhere within hail, she could be taken to Jocelyn's in

bottom of the boat, and, setting the rowlo

ubtless she would not have expressed if she had not

you whistle

that she was in earnest, and then, "Whistle!" he

g to come with you," she cried, "and you should hav

to have you come. If I thought anything, I thought you must have some pa

ared! I hoped it would storm. Then at least I should ha

stand what you

at day when you said it was going to be rough; and

't mind what Adams said; he was always croaking." She sat looking at him in a daze, but she could not speak, and he continued. "I see: it happened by one chance in a million to turn out as he said; and she ha

u, when you saw that I did n't believe there was g

you did n't like it I was glad of any excuse for putting it off. I could n't help wanting to p

way the confusion in which all this involved her. "But

Heaven knows I didn't dream of such a th

n't forgive it! You wished to deceive her if you did n't wish to deceive

he should think

eceit. What can

," he murmured, looking hopelessly i

e, all her suffering, was mere farce now; but his guilt in the matter was the greater. A fierce resentme

. "Miss Breen," he said huskily,

power," she answered crue

k, nor make any

eads above water, and approach near enough to examine her with their round soft eyes. She turned from the silly things in contempt that they should even have interested her. She felt that from time to time her companion lifted an

Now that the wind had risen again, "I have no right to forbid you to speak," she said, as if no silence

pathy had been her only cheer for many days. She fancied a bewilderment in its hopelessness which smote her with still sharper pathos. "Of course," she said, "I a

no other,

reflection. "Then it ough

o continue, and after a moment o

g to hear you, Mr. Libby, I am very wron

unless

hatever y

say why sentence shouldn't be passed upon me. Sentence is going to be passed any way. I should only repeat what I hav

ience' sake in her vocabulary. "All that was ended for me long ago,-ten years ago. And my whole life since then has been shaped

s I ought to say that Mrs.

ough she had no right to do

nd. I don't pretend that

as obliged to interfere in his behalf. "Mr. Libby, I have never co

whitewash myself; but it didn't occur to me how i

onsidered her, thoug

g bitterness for Mrs. Maynard. "But it doesn't matter whose fault it w

d to tell you that. It isn't creditable to me that I thought

could no

show him how impossible his hope was. "And you know," she said, recurring to something that had gone before, "that even if I had

ed. I know how much pe

ng. But what-what if I could n't give up my career-my hopes of being useful in t

o, that was my great trouble! I knew that it was selfish in me, and very conceited, to suppose you would give up you

I understand how unselfishly you meant, and indeed, indeed, I thank you. But don't let's talk of it any more. It couldn't have been, and there is nothing but misery in thinking of it. Come,"

shall get away, as soon as Maynard c

k they can't be friends after-such a thing as this. But why shouldn't we? I respect you, and

friend," he interru

entle perplexity, "then

o any good, I would stay, as you ask it. I should

-sympathy, your-You won't trouble me, indeed you won't. Perhaps you have mistake

erence,-the time. A

gether. Promise me that!" She instinctively put out her hand toward him i

ved in reproac

ied. "You see

hed in assent,

the boat pushed swiftly before the freshening breeze; and when they reached the pl

. He did not lift his eyes to hers, but from time to time he looked over his shoulder at the boat's prow, and he rowed from one point to ano

The shoal water stretched twenty feet beyond. He pulled in the oars an

erred in so many doubts, her suspicions of him had all recoiled so pitilessly upon her, that she had no longer the courage

e answered with coldnes

contempt, glancing at the water, into which he promptly st