“The old man was telling me to-day of your kindness in saving his house from being sold. It was like you, Guy; and I wish I, too, had the means to be generous, for they are so very poor.” “I’ll tell you,” said Jessie, who had stolen to the doctor’s side, and lain her fat, bare arm upon his shoulder, as if he had been Guy. “You might give Maddy the doctor’s bill. I remember how mamma cried, and said she never could pay papa’s bill when it was sent in.” “Jessie!” said Agnes and Guy, simultaneously, while the doctor laughingly pulled one of her long, black curls. “Yes, I could do that. I have thought of it, but they might not accept it, as they are proud as well as poor.” “Mr. Markham has no one to care for but his wife and this Madeline, has he?” Agnes asked; and the doctor replied: “I did not suppose so until a few days since, when I learned from a Mr. Green that Mrs. Markham’s youngest and only brother has been an inmate of a lunatic asylum for years; and that though they cannot pay his expenses, they do what they can toward providing him with comforts.” “What is a lunatic asylum, mother? What does he mean?” Jessie asked; but it was the doctor, not Agnes, who explained to the child what a lunatic asylum was. “Is insanity hereditary in this family?” Guy asked. Agnes’s cheek was very white, though her face was turned away, as the doctor answered, “I do not know; I did not ask the cause. I only heard the fact that such a man as Joseph Mortimer existed.” For a moment there was silence in the room, and then Guy told the doctor of what Agnes and himself were speaking when he arrived. “I suppose it’s of no use asking you to join us for a week or so.” “There was not,” the doctor said. “His patients needed him and he must stay at home.” “Doctor, how would this Maddy Clyde do to stay here with Jessie while we are gone, partly as companion and partly as her teacher?” was Guy’s next question, which awoke Mrs. Agnes at once from her reverie. “Guy,” she exclaimed, “are you crazy? That child Jessie’s governess! No, indeed! I shall have a teacher from Boston—one whose manners and style are unexceptionable.” Guy had a will of his own, and few could provoke it into action as effectually as Agnes, who, in thus opposing him, was working directly against herself. Paying her no attention, except to bow in token that he heard, Guy asked Jessie her opinion. “Oh, it will be splendid! Can she come to-morrow? I sha’n’t care how long you are gone if I can have Maddy here, and doctor will come up every day, will you not?” and the soft eyes looked up pleadingly into the doctor’s face. “It is not settled yet that Maddy comes,” the doctor replied; adding, as an answer to Guy’s question: “If Agnes were willing, I do not think you could do better than secure Miss Clyde’s services. Two children will thus be happy, for Maddy, as I have told you, thinks Aikenside must be a little lower than Paradise. I shall be happy to open negotiations, if you say so.”