e not such as--are not civil, I mean; in fact, they are not fair. He
is an excellent fellow, and sincerely your friend, besides. Now, don't
let a bit of temper get the mastery over better feeling, nor do not, out
of a momentary pique, throw up your appointment None of us, nowadays,
can afford to quarrel with his bread-and-butter; and though you are
certainly clever enough and skilful enough not to regard such an humble
place as this, yet, remember, you had a score of competitors when you
looked for it. Not to say that we all only desire to know how to be of
service to you, to make your residence amongst us agreeable, and--and
all that sort of thing, which you can understand far better than I
can say it!" Nor, to do the worthy Colonel justice, was this a
very difficult matter, seeing that, in his extreme confusion and
embarrassment, he stammered and stuttered at every word, while, to
increase his difficulty, the manner of Layton was cold and almost
stately.

"Am I to suppose, sir," said he, at length, "that you are here on the
part of Dr. Millar?"

"No, no; nothing of the kind. Millar knows, of course, the step I have
taken; perhaps he concurs in it; indeed, I 'm sure he does. He is your
sincere well-wisher, doctor,--a man who really wants to be your friend."

"Too much honor," said Layton, haughtily. "Not to say how arduous the
task of him who would protect a man against himself; and such I opine to
be the assumed object here."

"I 'm sure, if I had as much as suspected how you would have taken my
interference," said the Colonel, more hurt by Layton's tone than by his
mere words, "I 'd have spared myself my mission."

"You had no right to have anticipated it, sir. It was very natural for
you to augur favorably of any intervention by a colonel,--a C.B., with
other glorious distinctions--in regard to a poor dispensary doctor,
plodding the world wearily, with a salary less than a butler's. You had
only to look down the cliff, and see the humble cottage where he lived,
to calculate what amount of resistance could such a man offer to any
proposal that promised him bread."

"I must say, I wish you would not mistake me," broke in Karstairs, with
warmth.

"I am not stating anything with reference to you, sir; only with respect
to those judgments the world at large would pronounce upon _me_."

"Am I to conclude, then," said the Colonel, rising, and evidently in
anger,--"am I to conclude, then, that this is your delibera