--and whether I do any
good or not," he added fiercely, "I'll not have my good name tarnished
and my work interfered with _again_. I don't care two straws for my
life. It's hard enough--as hard as a treadmill, and never a drop of
consolation in the cup; though I might have had that if I had been
anything but a fool. But look here, I do care for my practice--I won't
have you put your confounded spoke in my wheel again. Keep on in your
own way; smoke and drink and dream if you will; but I'll stand no
interference with my work--and that I tell you once for all."

This speech was uttered with great vehemence, the speaker walking up and
down the room all the while. The bitterness of ingratitude and malice
had entered into the young man's soul. All the wrongs which the clever
elder brother, to whose claims everybody else was subordinated, had done
to his family, rose upon the recollection of the younger; all the still
bitterer sting of that injury which had been personal to himself; all
the burden and peril of this present undesired visit, the discontent,
the threats, the evident power of doing evil, woke the temper and spirit
of the young doctor. It was not Fred's fault that his brother had made
that mistake in life which he repented so bitterly. Bessie Christian's
bridal veil, and white ribbons; her joyful face untouched with any
pensive reminiscences; and the dead dulness of that house, into which
foot of woman never entered, were not of Fred's doing; but passion is
not reasonable. The doctor gave Fred credit unconsciously for the whole.
He walked up and down the room with a whole world of passionate mortified
feeling--vexation, almost despair, throbbing within him. He seemed to
have made a vast sacrifice for the sake of this brother who scorned him
to his face.

"You're hot," said the disreputable figure in Dr Rider's easy-chair,
"much hotter than there's any occasion for. Do I envy you your beggarly
patients, do you suppose? But, Ned, you never were cut out for the
profession--a good shopkeeping business would have been a deal better
for you. Hang it! you haven't the notions of a gentleman. You think
bread and water is all you're bound to furnish your brother when he is
under a cloud. As for society, I never see a soul--not even yourself,
though you're no great company. Look here--I am not unreasonable; order
in some supper--there's a good fellow--and let's have a comfortable
evening together. You're not the man you use