"I believe pneumonia cases ought to be isolated," "I know you have a strong theory to that effect. I did an external strabismus to-day." "Successful?" "I think so. I kept my hair on. By the way, you remember that duffer Lawson?" "Yes." "He has hooked an heiress--older than himself, but not so bad-looking. He will have a practice in no time now. I met him bowling along in his carriage, and there was I trudging through the mud! It's the irony of fate, upon my soul!" "True," said Dudley; "but you know, when we have all the intellect, and all the heart, and all the culture, we don't need to grudge him his carriage." "I'll shy something at you, Ralph! And now I want your news. How is the way?" "Thorny." "And the prospect of the anatomy medal?" "Dim. But what are medals to an 'aged, aged man' like me?" "You are hipped to-night. What's up?" Dudley did not reply at once. He was intensely reserved, as a rule, about his private affairs, but a curious impulse was upon him now to contradict his own character. "You and I have been chums for twenty years, more or less, Jack," he said irrelevantly. "True, O king! Well?" "I want to ask your advice on an abstract case." "Do you? Fire away! I am a dab at medical etiquette." Dudley had been paying a few professional visits for a friend. "It is not a question of medical etiquette," he said testily. "Suppose," he drew a long breath--"suppose you knew a young girl----" "Ah! My dear fellow, I never do know a young girl! It is the greatest mistake in the world." "Suppose," went on Dudley, unheeding, "that physically, mentally, and morally, she was about as near perfection as a human being can be." "Oh, _of course_!" "I don't ask your opinion as to the probability of it. I don't say I know such a person. Man alive! can't you suppose an abstract case?" "It is a large order, but I am doing my level best." "Suppose that, so far as she was concerned, it was simply all over with you." "Oh, that is easy enough. Well?" "Would you marry her, if----" "Alack, it had to come! Yes. If----?" "If she was a--a tremendous contrast to her people?" "Oh, _that_ is it, is it?" Melville sprang to his feet, and spoke very emphatically. "No, my dear fellow, upon my soul, I would not! They grow into their heredity with all the certainty of fate. I would rather marry a _gauche_ and unattractive girl because her mother was charming." This was rather beside the point, but it depressed Dudley, and he sighed. "But suppose--one has either to rave or make use of conventional expressions--suppose she was infinitely bright, and attractive, and womanly?" "Oh, they are all that, you know." "If you knew her----" "Oh, of course. That goes without saying. Now we come back to the point we started from. As I told you before, I never do know them, and it keeps me out of a world of mischief." Melville seated himself by the fire, and buried his hands in his curly hair.