profession. The more he thought about it the better he liked the idea
of being a doctor; till at length, after one or two talks about it with
Mr Fraser, he resolved, notwithstanding that the session was
considerably advanced, to attend the anatomical course for the rest of
it. The Greek and Latin were tolerably easy to him, and it would be so
much time gained if he entered the first medical class at once. He need
not stand the examination except he liked, and the fee was not by any
means large. His mother was more than satisfied with the proposal, and,
although what seemed a trifle to Alec was of some consequence to her,
she sent him at once the necessary supplies. Mr Fraser smoothed the way
for him with the professor, and he was soon busy making up his distance
by a close study of the class-books.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

The first day of his attendance in the dissecting-room was a memorable
one, and had memorable consequences. He had considerable misgivings
about the new experience he had to meet, and sought, by the
concentration of his will, to prepare himself to encounter the
inevitable with calmness, and, if possible, with seeming indifference.
But he was not prepared after all for the disadvantage of entering a
company already hardened to those peculiarities of the position for
which a certain induration is as desirable as unavoidable.

When he entered the room, he found a group already gathered. He drew
timidly towards the table on the other side, not daring to glance at
something which lay upon it--"white with the whiteness of what is
dead;" and, feeling as if all the men were looking at him, as indeed
most of them were, kept staring, or trying to stare, at other things in
the room. But all at once, from an irresistible impulse, he faced
round, and looked at the table.

There lay the body of a woman, with a young sad face, beautiful in
spite of a terrible scar on the forehead, which indicated too plainly
with what brutal companions she had consorted. Alec's lip quivered, and
his throat swelled with a painful sensation of choking. He turned away,
and bit his lip hard to keep down his emotion.

The best quality he possessed was an entire and profound reverence for
women. Indignation even was almost quelled in the shock he received,
when one of the students, for the pleasure of sneering at his
discomposure, and making a boast of his own superiority to such
weakness, uttered a brutal jest. In vain the uptu