It is possible that if all this could be knocked into Tom Smith’s uneducated head, he might not again lend himself so readily to the business; still less is it probable that all those cheques would be drawn in favour of St. Bernard’s, if the subscribers knew just how the case stood. They might ask with much cogency, “Cannot we get our nuts cracked without the use of those costly steam hammers?” And, after all, that is a very important factor in the case. For consider! It is only by much begging and by resorting to many stratagems that the governors can keep these charities going. Now if the charitable Christian public chooses to crack its nuts with steam hammers, we cannot offer any objection. It seems costly, but that is their business; but if they think their nuts can be cracked by no other and less costly method, they are very much in the dark. Let alone the fact of so much unconscious cruelty, wrought in the name of charity and mercy. Of that we have said enough. The fees for a complete hospital curriculum average a hundred guineas for the four years’ course, an absurdly small sum for such an education. In what other learned profession could such advantages be obtained for twenty-five guineas a year? But then the charitable public does not assist other professions so liberally as that of medicine. CHAPTER XXII. HOW ELSWORTH CAME TO HIMSELF. Oh, then, if Reason waver at thy side, Let humbler Memory be thy gentle guide; Go to thy birthplace, and, if Faith was there, Repeat thy father’s creed, thy mother’s prayer. —_Oliver Wendell Holmes._ A dream is o’er, And the suspended life begins anew; Quiet those throbbing temples, then, subdue That cheek’s distortion! His forehead pressed the moonlit shelf Beside the youngest marble maid awhile; Then, raising it, he thought, with a long smile, “I shall be king again!” as he withdrew The envied scarf; into the font he threw His crown. —_Browning_ (“_Sordello_”).