d she came every
day--till they'd spent all their money. You can't always have cakes, you
know, and then you'll miss them."

"But I shall have cakes always." answered Dr. John.

"Nobody has them always," she said, in an authoritative tone, "and you
won't like being poor. We were so poor we daren't buy as much as we
could eat; and our boots wore out at the toes. You like to have nice
boots, and gloves, and things, so you must learn to take care of your
money, and not waste it like this."

"I'm not wasting my money, little woman," he replied, "when I buy pretty
things for you and Olivia."

"Why doesn't Dr. Martin do it then?" she asked; "he never spends his
money in that sort of way. Why doesn't he give auntie as many things as
you do?"

Martin had been listening to Minima's rebukes with a smile upon his
face; but now it clouded a little, and I knew he glanced across to me. I
appeared deeply absorbed in the book I held in my hand, and he did not
see that I was listening and watching attentively.

"Minima," he said, in a low tone, as if he did not care that even she
should hear, "I gave her all I had worth giving when I saw her first."

"That's just how it will be with you, Dr. John," exclaimed Minima,
triumphantly, "you'll give us every thing you have, and then you'll have
nothing left for yourself."

But still, unless Martin had taken back what he gave to me so long ago,
his conduct was very mysterious to me. He did not come to Fulham half
as often as Dr. John did; and when he came he spent most of the time in
long, professional discussions with Dr. Senior. They told me he was
devoted to his profession, and it really seemed as if he had not time to
think of any thing else.

Neither had I very much time for brooding over any subject, for guests
began to frequent the house, which became much gayer, Dr. Senior said,
now there was a young hostess in it. The quiet evenings of autumn and
winter were gone, and instead of them our engagements accumulated on our
hands, until I very rarely met Martin except at some entertainment,
where we were surrounded by strangers. Martin was certainly at a
disadvantage among a crowd of mere acquaintances, where Dr. John was
quite at home. He was not as handsome, and he did not possess the same
ease and animation. So he was a little apt to get into corners with Dr.
Senior's scientific friends, and to be somewhat awkward and dull if he
were forced into gayer society. Dr. John called h