With what increased benignity I listened to the patients who visited me the next morning! The whole human race seemed to be worthier of love, and I longed to diffuse amongst all some rays of the glorious hope that had dawned upon my heart. My first call, when I went forth, was on the poor young woman from whom I had been returning the day before, when an impulse, which seemed like a fate, had lured me into the grounds where I had first seen Lilian. I felt grateful to this poor patient; without her Lilian herself might be yet unknown to me. The girl’s brother, a young man employed in the police, and whose pay supported a widowed mother and the suffering sister, received me at the threshold of the cottage. “Oh, sir, she is so much better to-day; almost free from pain. Will she live now; can she live?” “If my treatment has really done the good you say; if she be really better under it, I think her recovery may be pronounced. But I must first see her.” The girl was indeed wonderfully better. I felt that my skill was achieving a signal triumph; but that day even my intellectual pride was forgotten in the luxurious unfolding of that sense of heart which had so newly waked into blossom. As I recrossed the threshold, I smiled on the brother, who was still lingering there,-- “Your sister is saved, Wady. She needs now chiefly wine, and good though light nourishment; these you will find at my house; call there for them every day.” “God bless you, sir! If ever I can serve you--” His tongue faltered, he could say no more. Serve me, Allen Fenwick--that poor policeman! Me, whom a king could not serve! What did I ask from earth but Fame and Lilian’s heart? Thrones and bread man wins from the aid of others; fame and woman’s heart he can only gain through himself. So I strode gayly up the hill, through the iron gates, into the fairy ground, and stood before Lilian’s home. The man-servant, on opening the door, seemed somewhat confused, and said hastily before I spoke,-- “Not at home, sir; a note for you.” I turned the note mechanically in my hand; I felt stunned. “Not at home! Miss Ashleigh cannot be out. How is she?” “Better, sir, thank you.” I still could not open the note; my eyes turned wistfully towards the windows of the house, and there--at the drawing-room window--I encountered the scowl of Mr. Vigors. I coloured with resentment, divined that I was dismissed, and walked away with a proud crest and a firm step.