"Well, then, dear Ellen, you must come and see those I love best. There is one so like Johnny!" (her eyes filled with tears as she said this) "only that he looks as if he belonged to some noble race, like those that the verses talk about; and another looks like the picture in my prayer-book of young David going to fight Goliath. I am so happy with them that I sometimes forget myself, and stay longer in the square than I ought." "Why, what have you to do afterwards?" "Oh, then, it is time to go to the hospital." "What do you mean? What hospital?" "The hospital in--Place. I go there every day for five or six hours." "What to do?" "Whatever they give me to do." "I don't understand you, Alice." "You mean how I got leave to go there? I will tell you;--one of the nurses, sisters they call them now, knew me when we lived at Bromley, and two or three times I had met her in the street, and talked with her. She took me one day with her into the hospital to see a poor woman who had broken her leg; she was in sad distress of mind, and could not bear to be left alone, and, as the sisters had too much to do to sit much by her bed-side, they were glad enough to leave me with her. Ever since, I have gone there almost every day, and they always find something or other for me to do." "And when you leave the hospital, what do you do?" "Generally I go to the square again for an hour, and then to evening prayers; but sometimes, if Mr. Henry is at home, he walks with me for a little while." "And does Mr. Henry," I said with a smile, "approve of your long visits to the hospital, and your walks in the square, and all your solitary proceedings? He must be rather lonely at home all the morning without you?" "He gets up late," answered Alice, "and always goes out immediately after breakfast." "And then at dinner, or in the evening, I suppose, you give him an account of the proceedings of the day?" "No, Mr. Henry does not care for birds and flowers, or children. He is very kind to poor people; twice, when I have asked him, he has given me some money for them, but he does not like to hear about them." "Mrs. Middleton wishes very much to see you to-day, Alice." "Does she? I shall be so glad to see her. When may I go to her? Is she like Mr. Henry?" "In some ways she is, but you will find that she does care for birds and flowers" (I was going to add children, but something at my heart stopped me). "Come, dear Alice, put on your bonnet, and we will go to her immediately if you will come with me." While she was tying on her bonnet, I went up to the book-case, and, looking over it said, "I do not see any new books here. I should have thought you would have added to your stock in London?" "Mr. Henry has plenty of books in his study," answered Alice; "and when I was first married, as he had given me leave to take them when I liked, I read some of them." "And liked them?" "Some not enough--some too much."