an omnibus overtakes us."

She would have demurred at his ridding her of her flowers and parcel,
which he disposed of easily under his arm and in his disengaged hand, as
if he were well accustomed to being cumbered with such small
impediments, had not a comical idea crossed her mind. He might think
that she did not trust his honesty, and was beset by a fear that he
would rush down a side street and disappear with her goods before she
could cry, "Stop, thief!" and arouse the scanty passers-by.

Then Rose felt impelled to explain why she walked about London burdened
with flower-pots and rolls of gauze. "I have just been to Covent
Garden," she said. "I wished to get this pot of tulips--parrot
tulips--yellow and scarlet, you know, to harmonize with a Chinese screen
in a little picture I am painting. Then I had to go into 'Burnet's,'
for 'Liberty's' is too far away, for some blue stuff of the right shade
which I could drape into a frock for the little girl who is my model."

"Are you fond of painting?" he caught her up, being to the full as
willing to speak as she was. "So is my sister, and she also goes to
'Liberty's' for queer rags and tags. I suppose they are part of the
amateur's stock-in-trade."

"I am going to be a professional artist," said Rose again, with that
proud little inflection of the voice. But all the effect which her
communication had upon him was that he took it as an invitation, or at
least as a warrant, for responsive confidences on his own part.

"I am a doctor," he announced. "I have been entitled to write myself one
for the last two months. I have just passed my final exams, and got my
degree--stiffish work for a fellow who does not take to sapping as
easily as to the air he breathes."

"My father is a doctor," said Rose, brightly, with her tongue fairly
loosened. "I forget whether he says examinations were easier or more
difficult when he was young. He is Dr. Millar of Redcross."

"Millar!" exclaimed the tall young man so excitedly, that he stopped
short for an instant, in the middle of the dismally lashing rain, and
looked at her with a gleam of delight in his blue eyes. "I thought so,
I saw it at the first glance. You have a sister among the lady
probationers at St. Ebbe's."

"Yes--Annie," cried Rose, with equal ecstasy in the acquiescence; and
she, too, stood still for a second in the rain. "Do you know St. Ebbe's?
Have you seen Annie?"

"I should think I do, I should think I have," he a