t, they shall propagate, and for the sake of pleasing themselves
they shall hurry down the road which has been laid out for them. But
there lurks no bribe in the smell and beauty of the flower. It's charm
has no ulterior motive.

Well, I sat down there and brooded. In my heart I did not believe that
Cullingworth had taken alarm at so trifling a decrease. That could not
have been his real reason for driving me from the practice. He had found
me in the way in his domestic life, no doubt, and he had devised
this excuse for getting rid of me. Whatever the reason was, it was
sufficiently plain that all my hopes of building up a surgical practice,
which should keep parallel with his medical one, were for ever at an
end. On the whole, bearing in mind my mother's opposition, and the
continual janglings which we had had during the last few weeks, I was
not very sorry. On the contrary, a sudden curious little thrill of
happiness took me somewhere about the back of the midriff, and, as a
drift of rooks passed cawing over my head, I began cawing also in the
overflow of my spirits.

And then as I walked back I considered how far I could avail myself of
this money from Cullingworth. It was not much, but it would be madness
to start without it, for I had sent home the little which I had saved at
Horton's. I had not more than six pounds in the whole world. I reflected
that the money could make no difference to Cullingworth, with his large
income, while it made a vast one to me. I should repay him in a year
or two at the latest. Perhaps I might get on so well as to be able to
dispense with it almost at once. There could be no doubt that it was the
representations of Cullingworth as to my future prospects in Bradfield
which had made me refuse the excellent appointment in the Decia. I need
not therefore have any scruples at accepting some temporary assistance
from his hands. On my return, I told him that I had decided to do so,
and thanked him at the same time for his generosity.

"That's all right," said he. "Hetty, my dear, get a bottle of fez in,
and we shall drink success to Munro's new venture."

It seemed only the other day that he had been drinking my entrance into
partnership; and here we were, the same three, sipping good luck to
my exit from it! I'm afraid our second ceremony was on both sides the
heartier of the two.

"I must decide now where I am to start," I remarked. "What I want is
some nice little town where all the p