onalities of society, and
placed them on a footing of understanding and common sympathy not to
have been acquired by months, or even years, of the ordinary social
amenities. After a few directions for the care of the small patient,
and a promise to look in the following day, he told Mrs. Bell how to
find him in case of any sudden need and took up his hat and stick.

"Were you going, Dr. Earl? Can I set you down anywhere? My car is at the
door."

He bowed, and followed her out. "We have an embarrassment of riches," he
said, "for my car is also here." Then, rather boyishly, moved by an
impulse he would have found it hard to explain, he said, "Suppose we
dismiss them both, and walk up through the Park?"

She acquiesced, and a few moments later they were strolling up the
Avenue, rather silently, considering that each had many things to say.
As usual, it was the woman who broke the silence.

"Tell me about all this. I never was more interested in anything in my
life," she said, looking up at him with a glance that carried the
subtlest flattery, and, while her query was vague, he understood and
made no attempt to evade it.

"It is a long story," he said; "have you time for it to-day? And it is
really no more remarkable than the effect you produced in your parade
yesterday, and I think the causes are the same. The world is full of
mystery, but before honest, earnest purpose of any kind the storehouses
of mystery will eventually open. The fact is, that the present
tremendous progressive movement in the world is spiritual and every
phase of it is interdependent upon every other element. The thoughtless
call these things 'fads.' In reality, each one of them marks a
crystallization of centuries of thought and hope and dream for the
advancement and elevation of the human race. The world, as usually
happens in spiritual matters, awakened to the importance of all of them
at the same time." He paused, as if realizing for the first time how
personal was the story for which she had asked. "You will think me an
egregious egotist, Miss Holland, I fear."

"No, whatever you may be, or I may think you, you need have no fears on
that score." She answered simply, directly. "Please tell me--if you
think I deserve so great a confidence."

He bowed gravely; there was no hint of coquetry in her manner.

"Directly after my graduation at Harvard, three years ago, I opened
offices in New York, intending to specialize in surgery, for I had
p