“The dickens he is!” said Herbert, looking a little puzzled. Then turning to his mother, he added, “Mother, you ought to call on this Mrs. Clayton, for if she is an acquaintance of Anna and Rosa, they will very naturally wish to see her occasionally.” “She needn’t call for me,” said I, quickly. “Nor for me, for I don’t know her,” rejoined Anna, while with a haughty toss of her head, Aunt Charlotte replied, that “her circle of acquaintances was quite large enough now, and she’d no idea of extending it by taking in people about whom she knew nothing.” I know it was very wrong in me, but I could not help straightening up a little in my chair as I wondered what the proud Dell Thompson would say if she knew that the despised Rosa Lee was living as an equal in a family which looked down upon her and her husband as _nobodies_. I was roused from my reverie by my aunt’s asking Herbert in a low tone, “how _Ada_ was to-night,” and glancing towards him, I fancied that said _Ada_, whoever she might be, was to him not a very pleasant subject just then, for his brow darkened visibly, while he replied, “I never once thought to inquire, but I dare say she’s no worse, or she would have sent for you post haste.” There was a moment’s silence, and then my aunt again spoke, “Herbert, I wish you’d do better. You know how lonely she is, and how much she must necessarily feel your neglect.” “Fudge!” was his answer, as he folded his hands over his head, and leaning back in his chair, looked straight into the astral lamp. That night, when Anna and I were alone in our room, the former sat for a time in deep thought, saying, when I at last told her the clock was striking eleven, “I wonder who _Ada_ is!” _I_ wondered so, too, and my interest was not at all diminished when the next morning, at the breakfast table, Aunt Charlotte said to her son, “Herbert, I shall be busy this morning making arrangements about a school for Rosa, and I wish you’d go in and see Ada, will you?” “Yes, yes, I will,” said he, rather impatiently, adding, “and if I don’t find her any better, I mean to assume the responsibility of discharging that old superannuated _greeny_ who attends her, and install Dr. Clayton in his place. I took quite a fancy to him, and I’m going to give him my patronage!” “Oh, I wish you would!” I exclaimed involuntarily; for in spite of the wrong he had done me, I cherished no feeling of animosity towards him. Then, again, I had heard that it was sometimes very difficult for a young physician to obtain much practice in a strange place with no one to help him, and I thought, perhaps, Herbert’s “patronage” might be of some avail.