y sit up in bed. It was piteous to see him lying
with his door open, listening. He is full of warm sound feeling, poor
fellow. You would like to have heard the fervour with which he begged
me to tell his father to have no fears for the younger ones, for it
should be the most precious task of his life to do a parent's part by
them.'

'Let me see, he is just of Harry's age,' said Ethel, thoughtfully, as
if she had not the strongest faith in Harry's power of supplying a
parent's place.

'Well,' said her father, 'remember, a medical student is an older man
than a lieutenant in the navy. One sees as much of the interior as the
other does of the surface. We must take this young Ward by the hand,
and mind he does not lose his father's practice. Burdon, that young
prig that Spencer got down from London, met me at Gavin's, when I
looked in there on my way home, and came the length of Minster Street
with me, asking what I thought of an opening for a medical
man--partnership with young Ward, &c. I snubbed him so short, that I
fancy I left him thinking whether his nose was on or off his face.'

'He was rather premature.'

'I've settled him any way. I shall do my best to keep the town clear
for that lad; there's not much more for him, as things are now, and it
will be only looking close after him for a few years, which Spencer and
I can very well manage.'

'If he will let you.'

'There! that's the spitefulness of women! Must you be casting up that
little natural spirit of independence against him after the lesson he
has had? I tell you, he has been promising me to look on me as a
father! Poor old Ward! he was a good friend and fellow-worker. I owe
a great deal to him.'

Ethel wondered if he forgot how much of the unserviceableness of his
maimed arm had once been attributed to Mr. Ward's dulness, or how many
times he had come home boiling with annoyance at having been called in
too late to remedy the respectable apothecary's half measures. She
believed that the son had been much better educated than the father,
and after the fearful lesson he had received, thought he might realize
Dr. May's hopes, and appreciate his kindness. They discussed the
relations.

'Ward came as assistant to old Axworthy, and married his daughter; he
had no relations that his son knows of, except the old aunt who left
Averil her L2000.'

'There are some Axworthys still,' said Ethel, 'but not very creditable
people.'

'You may say