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IN THIS WORLD:

A NOVEL.

By MABEL COLLINS, Author of "An Innocent Sinner," &c.

Continued from Vol. I., page 697.

CHAPTER XXV.

IN PRACTICE.

ERNESTINE had now a two-fold purpose in pursuing the labours of her profession with all her native ardour.

First came her grand enthusiasm for healing-that love of the art itself by which the true artist is known.

And then came a second motive which grew stronger day by day.

Laura's revelation of the network of money difficulties in which she and her uncle stood, and her statement-vague indeed, but none the less alarming because so vague

-that certain conditions had to be fulfilled before her fortune could bring them freedom, filled Ernestine's soul with a personal horror. When Laura told her these things she had already put on her wedding-ring; and she realised, as she sat in the fernery in her weddingrobe, that, unless she speedily obtained some profitable practice of her own, she too would be dependent upon Laura's inheri

tance.

"Doubtless," she had said to herself, "Laura calculates upon this: she expects me to become her tool because she holds the key to my husband's ruin or success in her hands."

This thought had figuratively

taken Ernestine's breath away; she had allowed Laura to leave her, and had said no further word.

But now, strengthened by her sojourn by the sea, she had returned with a burning resolution in her heart. She did not understand what conditions Laura had to fulfil. She turned her mind from the subject, for she could see no course of action which she could adopt with regard to it. But a

resolve burned strongly within her that she would not personally add to Dr. Doldy's expenses-that she would not be dependent on him. The thought stung too deeply that, by allowing herself to be maintained in his household, she would make herself one of those whose hopes and fears hung upon the obtaining of Laura's fortune.

So she set herself vigorously to work. She took Dr. Doldy's household in hand, and applied her intellectual abilities to the curtailing of unnecessary expenses: she visited some few patients who had already attached themselves to her; she obtained permission to attend at certain operations performed by eminent surgeons, in order to carry on her observations; and between whiles she was fond of frequenting the little ante-chamber which divided her husband's consulting room from her own. At first this pleased him very much it was so charm

ingly new. It was so deliciously unlike the solitariness of his past life to rise from his chair whenever his room was empty, and have the chance, by just looking through a door, of seeing a face which, as he believed, was the most lovely that had ever come from the Creator's hand. Sometimes he would find it difficult to convince himself that this chance really existed; and then, if he called her, and there was no answer or if he rose and looked into her room, and found it empty -he was deeply disappointed; so that Ernestine's hoverings on the margin of his room were very welcome, and he was merely amused when she assured him, out of the simplicity of her heart, that she only came there to try and catch his manner-not for the pleasure of being near him. did not believe her, of course-what man would?

He

The

Often when he looked into her room-that room which he had so carefully furnished and filled with his love-if she sat there, as he sometimes found her, alone, he would pause and marvel at the picture; for to him the commencement of their home life was more filled with romance than any other part of their connection. atmosphere of his existence received a different colour when he found that this woman, whose intelligence he admired and whose beauty he worshipped, really took up a peaceful and domesticated life by his side. It was so delightful a surprise to him to find Ernestine giving orders to the cook and looking after the household, that he began to think his idea that she would speedily surrender any ambition in her profession and settle down as his wife, was being already proved true.

And it brought an additional tinge of rose-colour to his existence to find Ernestine so little assertive

and so truly womanly in her daily life his wildest hopes of happiness were being realised.

:

His professional duties had become so easy to him by long habit that, though he returned to take up the routine of work, yet, with Ernestine performing so admirably all the part he desired her to his dreamland was unbroken.

But Ernestine's nature was kept alive by stings of which he knew nothing. The desire to obtain some foothold in her profession was deeper than he supposed, because she had more reasons than he knew of to aim at a success of her own. She lived from day to day in a certain dread of her first meeting with Laura alone; her practical efforts in the household were prompted by something very different from that desire to please him to which he attributed them. the feeling that her actions must often be misunderstood by him made her sensitive to the last degree. There was but little dreamland for her. Her mind, indeed, was unnaturally wakeful; and it was only when quite alone with him that, in realising how completely he was still enwrapped in the glamour of their love, she herself became conscious of the refreshment she found in it.

And

But, when she sat in her consulting room, or haunted the little ante-chamber, it was not to realise the near presence of one she loved. To him that nearness was a continual delight, and the least sound which reached his ears would call his mind from the most difficult and absorbing diagnosis; and the patient, if chancing to gaze into his face, would wonder at the faint smile that passed over it. His mind had momentarily turned aside from its work to realise the happiness which filled his heart.

Ernestine in her present state was incapable of any such tempo

rary oblivion of work. She followed out his cases with an intense keenness, throwing upon each the light of her recent studies and the experience gained from observations which she was daily making under the guidance of the most skilful operators and physicians.

She hardly ever mentioned medical or professional matters to him; very occasionally she would ask him for an explanation of some symptom in one of her own patients, but she never made any remark upon his. Only once did she break this rule. A lady of title had just left his consulting room, and Ernestine had been partly amused and partly disgusted with the interview. The lady told him how ill, how ill she was; she hinted at very domestic troubles which had overwhelmed her delicate organisation. Dr. Doldy with some difficulty extracted her symptoms from her and made rapid notes of them; and while actually engaged in writing these and mentally reviewing the case, he, by a double brain action which Ernestine marvelled at, was able to lean a little forward towards the afflicted lady and say in delicately respectful tones "Madam, your nerves are shattered-absolutely shattered-absolutely shattered!"

"Ah!" was the reply, in a deepdrawn voice of self-admiration, "I knew it. Oh, Doctor, is it possible to restore me to anything like to anything like health?"

"If you take the greatest care of yourself, I believe it will be possible. But you must remember, Madam, that your constitution is extremely delicate. You must treat yourself as you would a rare Venetian vase; you must be preserved from any contact too rough or sudden."

Ernestine had overheard many consultations not unlike this, and had made no remark; but to-day Dr. Doldy had come straight

into her room as the patient left his.

He found her sitting on a low chair in the window, through which the sunlight streamed upon her bright hair and face so full of strong life. The contrast between her and the woman who had just left him struck him strangely at the moment.

"I am often in wonder " he said, standing and looking down upon her, "what makes you so different from other women; is it intellectual activity which gives you such a vividness of life, or is it the natural possession of that life which enables you to sustain the intellectual activity ?"

"You know," she answered, "which I believe in. 'To think is to live' once said a man who was almost wise. But don't talk of that now; my intellectual activity demands to know, just at present, why you, an honest man, should tell that lady that her nerves shattered?"

are

"Because it was medicinally good for her: it pleased and soothed her."

His tone had changed. Ernestine looked questioningly up at him. She said nothing farther for a moment, and then put an inquiry in a voice from which she had extracted all the brightness.

"What is the matter with her?" "Nothing!" replied Dr. Doldy; and, walking to another window, looked out.

"I thought, at least, she must have had heart disease," she said.

For about a minute there was silence, and then Dr. Doldy came and sat down by her side and began to talk of something else. He was much too deeply in love to be driven from the sunshine of her society by unspoken disapproval.

Ernestine said no more; but she treasured these things up in her heart.

She began to understand

how great a work it is to become a popular doctor.

But in their leisure hours Ernestine put these perplexities aside, and revelled in the broad stream of sunshine that lay upon their lives, and was yet scarce chequered with shade. She allowed a child-like capacity for enjoyment which she possessed to appear and to be gratified. Dr. Doldy's strong maturity of manhood seemed suddenly to have taken a step back into hilarious youthfulness; and with his beautiful wife by his side he entered upon all manner of foolish excursions, and heartily delighted in small pleasures; and continually he would look at her, as, with true good comradeship, she followed him into any amusement or enterprise which pleased him at the moment; and at such times he felt that any social position was worth sacrificing for the possession of such a comrade.

But, as yet, society had looked kindly upon them. Ernestine being very quiet and eminently unmasculine, the grand old ladies had not taken much offence at her doorplate.

Life was so englamoured with rose-colour, and so rich in sweetness to Dr. Doldy, that when one day Ernestine spoke to him with a knitted brow and a very serious voice, he stood aghast.

She had just returned from Mrs. Silburn's house; and, strangely enough, her visit there had brought a deep line upon her forehead a straight one, downwards, between her eyes. When that appeared on Ernestine's brow it meant sore perplexity within. It was a signal of distress.

But the signal was not one to be understood by Dr. Doldy. He had studied her face narrowly, but he had not known her long enough to know the meaning of that line of

care.

Dorothy knew it; but she was quite in the dark as to what it meant in this case, although it was her own words that had produced

it.

It was Dorothy's nature and Dorothy's business to know everything. She was not a scandalbut she certainly was a

monger;

purveyor of choice bits of gossip. Ernestine learned more of the ways and doings of the world around her in a few minutes' chatter with Dorothy than in a week of her own observations. She passed through life absorbed in the contemplation of certain aspects of it. She was not able, at the same time, to grasp all the petty incidents which befell her fellow passengers.

But Dorothy was all eyes and ears; she heard and saw and retailed all manner of small spicy things.

This afternoon, when Ernestine had spent a brief tranquil halfhour in her drawing-room, she had chattered thus about all sorts of people whom they both knew; and she innocently enough made the following remark:

"I hear Sir Percy Flaxen is paying great attention to Laura Doldy. I suppose she will soon be engaged again. Sir Percy is considered rather a catch; but so is Laura. If they do become engaged they will be an excellent match; both are very attractive to the opposite sex, both are rich, and I should think at the outside they can't have more than one idea between them."

Dorothy's talk, like a wandering rivulet, had branched far away from Laura and Sir Percy Flaxen when Ernestine interrupted her.

"Engaged again, I think you said? Has Laura Doldy, then, been already once engaged?"

"Didn't you know it?" exclaimed Dorothy. "She has been talked about with half-a-dozen men, and once definitely engaged.

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Ernestine did not like to ask any more. She knew so much and so little of Laura's affairs, that she was afraid lest in speaking she might either show her ignorance or suggest her knowledge. She soon went home, leaving Dorothy debating within herself what there could be distressing in the probability of Laura's engagement. And Ernestine had walked home deep in thought, and entered her own room. She sat down near the door, and, from where she sat, could hear something of what passed in Dr. Doldy's consultingroom. A patient had just come in, and, after a little while, his words. seemed to enter her mind, and awaken its interest; for she arose, and stepped into the little antechamber.

In the midst of a long interview, Dr. Doldy rose and came to the ante-chamber where she stood, to fetch something which he required; and there he found her. She generally retreated under such circumstances, for she held a thinking man sacred; but now she stayed where she was.

Seeing that she remained, he turned towards her, expecting that

she had some bright remark to make, or some piece of news which was too good to keep. He was only too glad to refresh himself now and again in her sunny atmosphere.

But when he turned, he saw her absorbed and frowning: a cloud on her brow, and no smile on her lips.

He stood aghast.

66

Why, Ernestine," he exclaimed, "what is it ?"

"Glaucoma," was her reply. At first he thought her mind was wandering; but a second after he laughed.

"Nonesnse!" he said, "the man's bilious. I meant, what is the matter with you?"

"Is it not Mr. Richy, the artist, who is with you?" was Ernestine's apparently irrelevant answer. "I should like to see him."

"Very well," said Dr. Doldy cheerfully, speaking from the level of a shelf, where he was looking for something. "I will bring him to the drawing-room. But I didn't know he was any favourite of yours."

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