that would make my rent, and all that sort of thing, secure. A
doctor has to set up with a show of affluence."

"It is a terrible profession to me, the medical profession," Beth
said. "The responsibilities must be so great and so various."

"Oh, I never think of that," he answered easily.

"_I_ should," Beth rejoined.

"Yes, _you_ would, of course," he said; "and that shows what folly it
is for women to go in for medicine. They worry about this and that,
things that are the patient's look-out, not the doctor's, and make no
end of mischief; besides always losing their heads in a difficulty."

Just then the horse, which had been very fidgety all the way, bolted.
The blood rushed into the doctor's face. "Sit tight! sit tight!" he
exclaimed. "Don't now,--now don't move and make a fuss. Keep cool."

"Keep cool yourself," said Beth dryly. "_I_'m all right."

Dr. Dan glanced at her sideways, and saw that she was laughing.

When they arrived at Fairholm, he made much of the incident. "If I
hadn't had my wits about me, there would have been a smash," he vowed.
"But I happened to be on the spot myself, and Miss Beth behaved
admirably. Most girls would have shrieked, you know, but she behaved
heroically."

This was all rather gushing, but it did not offend Beth, because she
associated gush with Aunt Grace Mary, who had always been kind to her.
Gushing people are usually weak and amiable, gush being the ill-judged
outcome of a desire to please; but at that happy age it was the
amiable intention that Beth took into account. Her desire to be
pleased, which had so seldom been gratified, had become a danger to
her judgment by this time; it made her apt to respond to any attempt
to please her without considering means and motives which should have
discounted her appreciation. Everybody was trying to please her now,
and all her being answered only too readily. She spent a delightful
day at Fairholm, and went home in extravagantly high spirits.

Dr. Dan called early the next morning, and found her with her hat on,
just going out.

"How are you this misty cold grey day?" he asked.

"Oh, very bright," she answered. "I feel as if I were the sun, and I'm
just going to shine out on the world to enliven it."

"May I accompany you?" he asked.

"The sun, alas! is a solitary luminary," she answered, shaking her
head.

"Then I shall hope for better luck next time," he said, and let her go
alone.

In the evening he came in again