I looked round and saw at the further end of the immense be-mirrored double drawing-room a grove of begonias, and heard a faint trickle of water. "It's an aquarium," said Mrs. Robinson triumphantly, and she looked archly at me. "Shall we tell Dr. Giles about it, Blanche?" "It has a goldfish in it," said Blanche, opening her lips for the first time. "That was the splash you heard," continued Mrs. Robinson, as if she were imparting a secret. "That splash was made by the goldfish." I gave up any thought I may have had of paying other professional calls that morning, and allowed Mrs. Robinson to lead me to the aquarium. As aquariums in back drawing-rooms go it was a very superior aquarium, designed especially for the house, so Mrs. Robinson informed me, by a very superior young man at Maple's----quite a gentleman. The aquarium had gravel upon its shallow bottom, and large pointed shells strewed upon the gravel. The water trickled in through a narrow grating on one side, and trickled out through another on the other side. An array of flowering begonias arranged round the irregularly shaped basin, gave the whole what Maple's young man had pronounced to be "a natural aspect," and effectually hid the two gratings while affording an unimpeded view of the shells, and the inmate. In the shallow water, motionless, save for his opening and shutting gills, and a faint movement of his tail, was poised a large obese goldfish. I looked at him through the gilt wire-netting stretched across the basin a few inches above the surface of the water, and it seemed as if he looked at me. I wondered with vague repugnance how anyone could regard him as a pet. To me he was wholly repulsive, swollen, unhealthy looking. "He knows me," said Mrs. Robinson, with a vain attempt at modesty. "He has taken a fancy to me. Cupboard love I'm afraid, Dr. Giles. You see I feed him every day. He just swims about or stays still if I am near, like I am now, and he can see me. But if I am some way off and he can't see me he tries to jump out to get to me. He never tries to jump when I am near him. I call him Goldy, Dr. Giles, and I'm just as fond of him as he is of me. Isn't it touching that a dumb creature should have such affection? If it were a dog or a cat of course I could understand it, and I once heard of a wolf that was loving, but I have always supposed till now that fishes were cold by nature. I daresay, dear Dr. Whittington told you about him? No! Well I am surprised, for he took such an interest in Goldy. It was Dr. Whittington who made me put the wire-netting over the aquarium. He said 'Some day that poor fellow will jump out in your absence to try and get to you, and you will find him dead on the carpet.' So we put the wire-netting across." "He jumps," said the young girl gazing intently at the goldfish. "When we sit playing cards in the evening he jumps again and again. But the wire always throws him back."