r from a frog!' and Esther's
solemn distress over a wrong termination. Isn't it a blessing that we
are made differently, and that some people are born with such wonderful
patience and forbearance? I pity their poor little knuckles if _I_ were
in charge. But then I was always hastily inclined. Your father used to
say that Esther and Rob had far more of the scholarly spirit than Rex,
though he must have worked hard to get through his examinations so well.
Dear old Rex, how I should love to see him again! It seems so funny to
think of him as a full-fledged doctor, with a practice of his own! How
does he like living in the North, and how does he get on?"

Mellicent shrugged her shoulders uncertainly.

"Pretty well, only it's such a disgustingly bracing place that no one is
ever ill. Rex says it is most depressing to look out of the windows and
see the healthy faces! He gets so tired waiting for patients who never
come. I stayed with him for a week in the winter, and whenever the bell
rang we used to rush out into the hall, and peer over the banisters to
see who was there, and if it was a patient Rex kept him waiting for ten
minutes by his watch, to pretend that he was busy, though he was really
dying to fly downstairs at once. He makes very little money, and father
has to help him a good deal; but last month something happened which he
hopes will help him on. The mayor of the town had a carriage accident
just opposite his house, and was nearly killed. Wasn't it luck for Rex?
He was so pleased! The mayor was carried into the house, and could not
be moved for days, and the papers were full of `Dr Asplin this, and Dr
Asplin that,' as if he was the biggest doctor they had! The mayoress
seems to have taken a fancy to him too, for she begs him to go to their
house as often as he likes, without waiting to be asked. It will be
nice for Rex to have some friends in the town, for he daren't go far
from home. Oswald and his wife live within an hour's rail, and often
invite him there, but he is afraid to go, in case a patient _should_
appear!"

"Oswald's wife! How strange it sounds! I have never heard anything
about her, and am so curious to know what she is like! What account did
Rex bring when he came home from the wedding?"

"He said he couldn't attempt to describe her, but that you could meet
seventy-six girls exactly like her any day of the week. Rather pretty,
rather fair, rather nice, rather musical! Every