ed her his flowers and
his wall-fruit, and asked her to eat his strawberries. He bade her
admire his asparagus. And then he gave her tea in the drawing-room,
with strawberries and cream and cakes, of all of which he ate
nothing. But he smiled expansively all the time. He was a made man:
and now he was really letting himself go, luxuriating in everything;
above all, in Alvina, who poured tea gracefully from the old
Georgian tea-pot, and smiled so pleasantly above the Queen Anne
tea-cups.

And she, wicked that she was, admired every detail of his
drawing-room. It was a pleasant room indeed, with roses outside the
French door, and a lawn in sunshine beyond, with bright red flowers
in beds. But indoors, it was insistently antique. Alvina admired the
Jacobean sideboard and the Jacobean arm-chairs and the Hepplewhite
wall-chairs and the Sheraton settee and the Chippendale stands and
the Axminster carpet and the bronze clock with Shakespeare and
Ariosto reclining on it--yes, she even admired Shakespeare on the
clock--and the ormolu cabinet and the bead-work foot-stools and the
dreadful Sevres dish with a cherub in it and--but why enumerate. She
admired _everything_! And Dr. Mitchell's heart expanded in his bosom
till he felt it would burst, unless he either fell at her feet or
did something extraordinary. He had never even imagined what it was
to be so expanded: what a delicious feeling. He could have kissed
her feet in an ecstasy of wild expansion. But habit, so far,
prevented his doing more than beam.

Another day he said to her, when they were talking of age:

"You are as young as you feel. Why, when I was twenty I felt I had
all the cares and responsibility of the world on my shoulders. And
now I am middle-aged more or less, I feel as light as if I were just
beginning life." He beamed down at her.

"Perhaps you _are_ only just beginning your _own_ life," she said.
"You have lived for your work till now."

"It may be that," he said. "It may be that up till now I have lived
for others, for my patients. And now perhaps I may be allowed to
live a little more for myself." He beamed with real luxury, saw the
real luxury of life begin.

"Why shouldn't you?" said Alvina.

"Oh yes, I intend to," he said, with confidence.

He really, by degrees, made up his mind to marry now, and to retire
in part from his work. That is, he would hire another assistant,
and give himself a fair amount of leisure. He was inordinately proud