tendance."

"I am in attendance," said the girl firmly. "I am Mrs. Maynard's
physician."

"You? Physician"

"If you have looked at my card"--she began with indignant severity.

He gave a sort of roar of amusement and apology, and then he stared at
her again with much of the interest of a naturalist in an extraordinary
specimen.

"I beg your pardon," he exclaimed. "I did n't look at it"; but he now
did so, where he held it crumpled in the palm of his left hand. "My
mother said it was a young lady, and I did n't look. Will you will you
sit down, Dr. Breen?" He bustled in getting her several chairs. "I live
off here in a corner, and I have never happened to meet any ladies
of our profession before. Excuse me, if I spoke under a--mistaken
impression. I--I--I should not have--ah--taken you for a physician.
You"--He checked himself, as if he might have been going to say that
she was too young and too pretty. "Of course, I shall have pleasure
in consulting with you in regard to your friend's case, though I've
no doubt you are doing all that can be done." With a great show of
deference, he still betrayed something of the air of one who humors a
joke; and she felt this, but felt that she could not openly resent it.

"Thank you," she returned with dignity, indicating with a gesture of her
hand that she would not sit down again. "I am sorry to ask you to come
so far."

"Oh, not at all. I shall be driving over in that direction at any rate.
I've a patient near there." He smiled upon her with frank curiosity, and
seemed willing to detain her, but at a loss how to do so. "If I had n't
been stupid from my nap I should have inferred a scientific training
from your statement of your friend's case." She still believed that he
was laughing at her, and that this was a mock but she was still helpless
to resent it, except by an assumption of yet colder state. This had
apparently no effect upon Dr. Mulbridge. He continued to look at her
with hardly concealed amusement, and visibly to grow more and more
conscious of her elegance and style, now that she stood before him.
There had been a time when, in planning her career, she had imagined
herself studying a masculine simplicity and directness of address; but
the over-success of some young women, her fellows at the school, in this
direction had disgusted her with it, and she had perceived that after
all there is nothing better for a girl, even a girl who is a doctor
of medicine, than a