eyes less noble in themselves,--that full
consciousness, I say, was forced upon me by certain words of your own.
For the rest, you know my descent is sufficiently recognized as that
amidst well-born gentry to have rendered me no mesalliance to families
the most proud of their ancestry, if I had kept my hereditary estate and
avoided the career that makes me useful to man. But I acknowledge that
on entering a profession such as mine--entering any profession except
that of arms or the senate--all leave their pedigree at its door, an
erased or dead letter. All must come as equals, high-born or low-born,
into that arena in which men ask aid from a man as he makes himself; to
them his dead forefathers are idle dust. Therefore, to the advantage of
birth I cease to have a claim. I am but a provincial physician, whose
station would be the same had he been a cobbler's son. But gold retains
its grand privilege in all ranks. He who has gold is removed from
the suspicion that attaches to the greedy fortune-hunter. My private
fortune, swelled by my savings, is sufficient to secure to any one I
married a larger settlement than many a wealthy squire can make. I need
no fortune with a wife; if she have one, it would be settled on herself.
Pardon these vulgar details. Now, have I made myself understood?"

"Fully," answered the Queen of the Hill, who had listened to me quietly,
watchfully, and without one interruption, "fully; and you have done
well to confide in me with so generous an unreserve. But before I say
further, let me ask, what would be your advice for Lilian, supposing
that you ought not to attend her? You have no trust in Dr. Jones;
neither have I. And Annie Ashleigh's note received to-day, begging me
to call, justifies your alarm. Still you think there is no tendency to
consumption?"

"Of that I am certain so far as my slight glimpse of a case that to me,
however, seems a simple and not uncommon one, will permit. But in
the alternative you put--that my own skill, whatever its worth, is
forbidden--my earnest advice is that Mrs. Ashleigh should take her
daughter at once to London, and consult there those great authorities to
whom I cannot compare my own opinion or experience; and by their counsel
abide."

Mrs. Poyntz shaded her eyes with her hand for a few moments, and seemed
in deliberation with herself. Then she said, with her peculiar smile,
half grave, half ironical,--

"In matters more ordinary you would have won me