is. I like the Captain. Whatever he
was in the days before his accident I don't know--they say he was a
terror. But when I entered the family he was as he is now--a pathetic
figure. He isn't really old; but he's horribly crippled, and takes it
very hard. He is kindness itself to his wife and to every one round him,
and will be grateful for anything you do for him. Bertha is young but
maturing very rapidly, and there's no telling where she will stop. She's
been studying with me, and I've told her you will advise her while she's
in Chicago. You needn't go far with her if you don't want to. The
Hallidays and Voughts won't mind the back pages of the Haney history,
and you needn't say anything about the Captain's career if you don't
want to. He's a big mine-owner now, and is out of the gambling and
saloon business altogether. Bertha is perfectly eligible in herself. And
as many of us started on farms or poor little villages, we can't afford
to take on any airs over her. She's of good parentage, and as true as
steel. She likes the Captain, and is devoted to him."

Dr. Brent was not connected with the university, but his wife's brother
had been a student there, and was now an instructor in one of the
scientific departments. And Mrs. Brent's charm of manner and the
Doctor's easy-going hospitality made their fine little Kenwood home the
centre of a certain intellectual Bohemia on the borders of the
institution, and the "artistic gang" occasionally met and genially
interfused with the professors round the big Brent fireplace. Being rich
in his own right, Brent took his practice in such moderation as to be of
the highest effectiveness when he consented to operate, and was in
demand for difficult surgical cases. He was slender, blond, and languid
of movement--not in the least suggestive of the Western hustle of
Chicago, and yet he was born within twenty miles of the court-house.
Indeed, it was the spread of the city which had enriched his father's
estate, and which now permitted him to work when he felt like it, and to
assemble round his hearthstone--an actual stone, by the way--the people
he liked best. The amount of hickory wood he burned was stupendous.

Mrs. Brent was known as "the audacious hostess," because she was not
afraid to invite anybody who interested her. "You take your reputation
in your hand," her friends often said to those about to make their first
call. "You may meet an actor from New York or a stone-mason from