“I could see splendidly in Mr. Remington’s mirrors. Sarah Jones says they come to the floor,” she said to herself, with a half sigh of regret that her lot had not been cast in some such place as Aikenside, instead of there beneath the hill in that wee bit of a cottage, whose roof slanted back until it almost touched the ground. “After all, I guess I’m happier here,” she thought. “Everybody likes me, while if I were Mr. Guy’s sister and lived at Aikenside, I might be proud and wicked, and——” She did not finish the sentence, but somehow the story of Dives and Lazarus, read by her grandfather that morning, recurred to her mind, and feeling how much rather she would rest in Abraham’s bosom than share the fate of him who once was clothed in purple and fine linen, she pinned on her little neat plaid shawl, and, tying the blue ribbons of her coarse straw hat under her chin, glanced once more at the rule for the formidable cube root, and then hurried down to where her grandfather and old Sorrel were waiting for her. “I shall be so happy when I come back, because it will then be over, just like having a tooth out, you know,” she said to her grandmother, who bent down for the good-bye kiss, without which Maddy never left her. “Now, grandpa, drive on; I was to be there at three,” and chirruping herself to Sorrel, the impatient Maddy went riding from the cottage door, chatting cheerily until the village of Devonshire was reached; then, with a farewell to her grandfather, who never dreamed that the man he was seeking was so near, she tripped up the walk, and soon stood in the presence of not only Dr. Holbrook, but also of Guy Remington. CHAPTER III. THE EXAMINATION. It was Guy who received her, Guy who pointed to a chair, Guy who seemed perfectly at home, and, naturally enough she took him for Dr. Holbrook, wondering who the other black-haired man could be, and if he meant to stay in there all the while. It would be very dreadful if he did, and in her agitation and excitement the cube root was in danger of being altogether forgotten. Half guessing the cause of her uneasiness, and feeling more averse than ever to taking part in the matter, the doctor, after a hasty survey of her person, withdrew into the background, and sat where he could not be seen. This brought the short dress into full view, together with the dainty little foot nervously beating the floor. “She’s very young,” he thought; “too young, by far;” and Maddy’s chances of success were beginning to decline even before a word had been spoken.