t that three thousand pounds give him! He wondered if Dr. Lee
would turn his back upon him now when they met in consultation; and
Mr. Chubb, the county apothecary, would he laugh and ask him if he
could read his own prescriptions? Then he recurred to a dream--for
it was so vague at that time as to be little more--whether it would
not be better to abandon altogether country practice, and establish
himself in the metropolis--London. A thousand pounds, advantageously
spent, with a few introductions, would do a great deal in London, and
that was not a third of what he had. And this great idea banished all
remembrance of the past, all sense of the present--the young aspirant
thought only of the future.

CHAPTER II.

Five years have passed. Dr. John Adams was "settled" in a small
"showy" house in the vicinity of Mayfair; he had, the world said, made
an excellent match. He married a very pretty girl, "highly connected,"
and was considered to be possessed of personal property, because,
for so young a physician, Dr. Adams lived in "a superior style." His
brother Charles was still residing in the old farm-house, to which,
beyond the mere keeping it in repair, he had done but little, except,
indeed, adding a wife to his establishment--a very gentle, loving,
yet industrious girl, whose dower was too small to have been her only
attraction. Thus both brothers might be said to be fairly launched in
life.

It might be imagined that Charles Adams, having determined to reside
in his native village, and remain, what his father and grandfather
had been, a simple gentleman farmer, and that rather on a small than
a large scale, was altogether without that feeling of ambition which
stimulates exertion and elevates the mind. Charles Adams had quite
enough of this--which may be said, like fire, to be "a good servant,
but a bad master"--but he made it subservient to the dictates of
prudence--and a forethought, the gift, perhaps, that, above all
others, we should most earnestly covet for those whose prosperity we
would secure. To save his brother's portion of the freehold from going
into the hands of strangers, he incurred a debt; and wisely--while
he gave to his land all that was necessary to make it yield its
increase--he abridged all other expenses, and was ably seconded in
this by his wife, who _resolved_, until principal and interest were
discharged, to live quietly and carefully. Charles contended that
every appearance made beyo