"He was to have been my husband," said Aunt Sophia in a low sweet voice, "had he but lived. Forty years ago! Is it so long?" Jack Scales was a man pretty well inured to trouble. He had seen grief in many phases, and his sympathies to some extent were dulled; but as he heard those calmly uttered words, and saw the old face that was raised half reverently towards the tablet upon the wall, there was a something seemed to catch his breath, and the white marble grew dim and blurred, as did the softened face that was by his side; and as Aunt Sophia rose, he once more raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, the look he gave her asking forgiveness, which was accorded with a smile. As they walked slowly back, the doctor's manner towards his companion was entirely changed. He felt that here was a woman whom a man might be proud to call friend; and when they reached the gate leading into the meadows, and she turned to him with a smile, and said to him, "And how is Lady Martlett?" he started slightly, and then uttered a sigh of relief. "Hah!" he exclaimed. "You still take an interest in that?" "O yes, doctor," she said. "I have from the beginning. Well, is it to be a match?" "No, no. I'll be frank with you. I like the woman--well, I love her as well as a man should one whom he would make his wife; but it is impossible." "Indeed!" "Yes; impossible," he said gloomily; "even if she were not playing with me." "I don't think she is, doctor--not if I understand anything about women. Her pride is assumed, on account of your off-hand way to her. Why, you jeer and laugh at her. I have seen you insult her." "Well, yes, I have. What else could I do? She wanted to bring me to her feet, to make me her slave, and to throw me over, as she has served a dozen more." "Fops and fortune-hunters." "Yes, that's it," he said excitedly, and quite carried out of his ordinary mood; "fortune-hunters. She thinks me one of that despicable brood. Hang it all, Miss Raleigh! it is out of the question." "Why?" "Why, my dear madam? Now come. You know me pretty well by this time. Do you think I'd go hanging after such a woman for the sake of her money, and be the miserable reptile who married her for that?" "No; I think you like her for herself alone." "I wish she hadn't a penny; and then again, if she hadn't, I couldn't marry her." "Indeed?" "Now, how could I drag such a woman down from a life of refinement and luxury, to be the wife of a poor doctor? No, madam; it is all a dream. We shall go on, sneering on her part, laughing and defiant on mine, and, I believe, all the time with sore hearts hidden beneath it all. There, you have my secret out bare before you. Now, you can laugh at the misogynist of a doctor, and think as little of him as you like."