"No, I do not regard it as curiosity, only as a kind interest in my welfare." "You judge me right." "I brought with me a few hundred dollars, Miss Blagden--what was left to me from the legacy of a good aunt--but I have already used a quarter of it, and every month it grows less." "I feel an interest in young men--I am free to say this without any fear of being misunderstood, being an old woman--" "An old woman?" "Well, I am more than twenty-nine." We both smiled, for this was the age that Mrs. Wyman owned up to. "At any rate," she resumed, "I am considerably older than you. I will admit, Dr. Fenwick, that I am not a blind believer in the medical profession. There are some, even of those who have achieved a certain measure of success, whom I look upon as solemn pretenders." "Yet if you were quite ill you would call in a physician?" "Yes. I am not quite foolish enough to undertake to doctor myself in a serious illness. But I would repose unquestioning faith in no one, however eminent." "I don't think we shall disagree on that point. A physician understands his own limitations better than any outsider." "Come, I think you will do," she said, pleasantly. "If I am ill at any time I shall probably call you in." "Thank you." "And I should criticise your treatment. If you gave me any bread pills, I should probably detect the imposture." "I should prefer, as a patient, bread pills to many that are prescribed." "You seem to be a sensible man, Dr. Fenwick. I shall hope to have other opportunities of conversing with you. Let me know from time to time how you are succeeding." "Thank you. I am glad you are sufficiently interested in me to make the request." By this time we had reached the boarding-house. We could see Mrs. Wyman at the window of the reception room. She was evidently surprised and amused to see us together. I was sure that I should hear more of it, and I was not mistaken. "Oh, Dr. Fenwick," she said playfully, as she took a seat beside me at the table. "I caught you that time." "I don't understand you," I said, innocently. "Oh, yes, you do. Didn't I see you and Miss Blagden coming in together?" "Yes." "I thought you would confess. Did you have a pleasant walk?" "It was only from the Star Theatre." "I see you are beginning to apologize. You could say a good deal between Waverley Place and the Star Theatre." "We did." "So I thought. I suppose you were discussing your fellow boarders, including poor me." "Not at all." "Then my name was not mentioned?" "Yes, I believe you were referred to." "What did she say about me?" inquired the widow, eagerly. "Only that she was older than you." "Mercy, I should think she was. Why, she's forty if she's a day. Don't you think so?" "I am no judge of ladies' ages." "I am glad you are not. Not that I am sensitive about my own. I am perfectly willing to own that I am twenty seven." "I thought you said twenty-nine, the other evening?"