"I remember her,--slight--slight little creature, all eyes and hair, all soul and mind. Now what are you going to do with her, eh?" "What is she going to do with me, rather! I'll go back to her as soon as I dare leave the boy." "But, man alive! what--what are--you can't live down there all your days. It's to be life and work for you, sir, and what are you going to do with her, I say?" "I'll bring her here with me. She'll come." "Of course you'll bring her here with you, and you--you'll have plenty of friends. Maybe they'll appreciate her, and maybe they won't; maybe they won't, I say; Understand? And she'll c--come. Oh, yes, she'll come! she'll do whatever you say, and presently she'll break her heart and die for you. She'll never say a word, but that's what she'll do." "Why, Doctor!" cried David, appalled. "I love her as my own life--my very soul." "Of--of course. That goes without saying. We all do, we men, but we--damn it all! Do you suppose I've lived all these years and not seen? Why--we think of ourselves first every time. D--don't we, though? Rather!" "But selfish as we are, we can love--a man can, if he sets himself to it honestly,--love a woman and make her happy, even without the appreciation of others, in spite of environment,--everything. It's the destiny of women to love us, thank God. She would have been doomed surely to die if she had married the one who wanted her first--or to live a life for her worse than death." "Oh, Lord bless you, boy, yes. It's a woman's destiny. I'm an old fool. There--there's my own little girl, she's m--married and gone--gone to live in England. They will do it--the women will. Come, we'll go see Adam." The doctor sprang up, brushed his hand across his eyes, and caught up a battered silk hat. He turned it about and looked at it ruefully, with a quizzical smile playing about the corners of his eyes. "Remember that hat?" he asked. "Well do I remember it. You've driven many a mile in many a rainstorm by my side under that hat! When you're done with it, leave it to me in your will. I have a fancy for it. Will you?" "Here, take it--take it. I'm done with it. Mary scolds me every day about it. No p--peace in life because of it. Here's a new one I bought the other day--good one--good enough." He lifted a box which had fallen from his cluttered office table, and took from it a new hat which had evidently not been unpacked before. He tried it on his head, turned it about and about, took it off and gazed at it within and without, then hastily tossed it aside and, snatching his old one from David put it on his head, and they started off.