rmer occupants of the
dwellings were squeezed out, while persons of a better class, such as
clerks, took possession of the model tenements at a totally inadequate
rent.

It was in visiting some of the tenants of these cottages that in an evil
hour Jane first met Dr. Merchison, a young man of about thirty, who held
some parish appointment which placed the sick of this district under
his charge. Ernest Merchison was a raw-boned, muscular and rather
formidable-looking person, of Scotch descent, with strongly-marked
features, deep-set eyes, and very long arms. A man of few words, when he
did speak his language was direct to the verge of brusqueness, but his
record as a medical man was good and even distinguished, and already he
had won the reputation of being the best surgeon in Dunchester. This
was the individual who was selected by my daughter Jane to receive
the affections which she had refused to some of the most polished and
admired men in England, and, as I believe, largely for the reason that,
instead of bowing and sighing about after her, he treated her with a
rudeness which was almost brutal.

In one of these new model houses lived some people of the name of Smith.
Mr. Smith was a compositor, and Mrs. Smith, _nee_ Samuels, was none
other than that very little girl whom, together with her brother, who
died, I had once treated for erysipelas resulting from vaccination. In
a way I felt grateful to her, for that case was the beginning of my real
success in life, and for this reason, out of several applicants, the
new model house was let to her husband as soon as it was ready for
occupation.

Could I have foreseen the results which were to flow from an act of
kindness, and that as this family had indirectly been the cause of my
triumph so they were in turn to be the cause of my ruin, I would have
destroyed the whole street with dynamite before I allowed them to set
foot in it. However, they came, bringing with them two children, a
little girl of four, to whom Jane took a great fancy, and a baby of
eighteen months.

In due course these children caught the whooping-cough, and Jane visited
them, taking with her some delicacies as a present. While she was there
Dr. Merchison arrived in his capacity of parish doctor, and, beyond a
curt bow taking no notice of Jane, began his examination, for this was
his first visit to the family. Presently his eye fell upon a box of
sweets.

"What's that?" he asked sharply.

"It's