se, and I suffer for it! _I_ have to go
without what I want--"

"Oh, hush! Hush!" Selwyn tried ineffectually to stem the torrent of
complaint.

"No, I won't hush! It's 'Doctor Dick this,' and 'Doctor Dick that'--oh,
yes, you see, I know their name for you, these slum patients of
yours!--but it's Doctor Dick's wife who really foots the bills--by going
without what she needs!"

"Minnie, be quiet!" Selwyn broke in sternly. "Remember Miss Tennant is
present."

But she had got beyond the stage when the presence of a third person,
even that of an absolute stranger, could be depended upon to exercise
any restraining effect.

"Well, since Miss Tenant's going to live here, the sooner she knows how
things stand the better! She won't be here long without seeing how I'm
treated"--her voice rising hysterically--"set on one side, and denied
even the few small pleasures my health permits----"

She broke off in a storm of angry weeping, and Sara retreated hastily
from the room, leaving husband and wife alone together.

She had barely regained the shabby sitting-room when the front door
opened and closed with a bang, and a gay voice could be heard calling--

"Jane! Jane! Come here, my pretty Jane! I've brought home some shrimps
for tea!"

"Hold your noise, Miss Molly, now do!"

Sara could hear Jane's admonitory whisper, and there followed a murmured
colloquy, punctuated by exclamations and gusts of young laughter,
calling forth renewed remonstrance from Jane, and then the door of the
room was flung open, and Molly Selwyn sailed in and overwhelmed Sara
with apologies for her reception, or rather, for the lack of it. She was
quite charming in her penitence, waving dimpled, deprecating hands, and
appealing to Sara with a pair of liquid, disarming, golden-brown eyes
that earned her forgiveness on the spot.

She was a statuesque young creature, compact of large, soft, gracious
curves and swaying movements--with her nimbus of pale golden hair, and
curiously floating, undulating walk, rather reminding one of a stray
goddess. Always untidy with hooks lacking at important junctures, and
the trimmings of her hats usually pinned on with a casualness that
occasionally resulted in their deserting the hat altogether, she could
still never be other than delightful and irresistibly desirable to look
upon.

Her red, curving mouth of a child, cleft chin, and dimpled, tapering
hands all promised a certain yieldingness of disposition--a ten