he sickly and the
diseased alive, that perfect health is scarcely known. Life without
health can be nothing but a weariness: why should it be reckoned a
praiseworthy thing to keep it going at any price? If life became a
burden to me, I should lay it down."

"But," said Lefevre, earnestly, "your life surely is not your own to do
with it what you like!"

"In the name of truth, Lefevre," answered Julius, "if my life is not my
own, what is? I get its elements from others, but I fashion it myself,
just as much as the sculptor shapes his statue, or the poet turns his
poem. You don't deny to the sculptor the right to smash his statue if it
does not please him, nor to the poet the right to burn his
manuscript;--why should you deny me the right to dispose of my life? I
know--I know," said he, seeing Lefevre open his mouth and raise his hand
for another observation, "that your opinion is the common one, but that
is the only sanction it has; it has the sanction neither of true
morality nor of true religion! But here is the waiter to tell you the
carriage is come. I'm glad. Let us get out into the air and the
sunshine."

The carriage was the doctor's own; his mother, although the widow of a
Court physician, was too poor to maintain much equipage, but she made
what use she pleased of her son's possessions. When Lady Lefevre saw
Julius at the carriage-door, she broke into smiles and cries of welcome.

"Where have you been this long, long while, Julius?" said she. "This is
Julius Courtney, Nora. You remember Nora, Julius, when she was a little
girl in frocks?"

"She now wears remarkable gowns," chimed in the doctor.

"Which," said Julius, "I have no doubt are becoming."

"My brother," said Nora, with a sunny smile, "is jealous; because, being
a doctor, he must wear only dowdy clothes of dingy colours."

"We have finished at school and college, and been presented at Court,"
laughed Lady Lefevre.

"And," broke in the brother, "we have had cards engraved with our full
name, _Leonora_."

"With all this," said Lady Lefevre, "I hope you won't be afraid of us."

"I see no reason," said Julius. "For, if I may say so, I like everything
in Nature, and it seems to me Nature has had more to do with the
finishing you speak of than the schoolmistress or the college
professor."

"There he is already," laughed Lady Lefevre, "with his equivocal
compliments. I shouldn't wonder if he says that, my dear, because you
have not yet had more