'Which means that you have often occasion to, and that he often sponges on you. Excuse the crudity of my language; I simply express a fact. I don't ask you how much of your money he has had, it is none of my business. I have ascertained what I suspected - what I wished.' And the Doctor got up, gently smoothing his hat. 'Your brother lives on you,' he said, as he stood there. Mrs Montgomery quickly rose from her chair, following her visitor's movements with a look of fascination. But then, with a certain inconsequence - 'I have never complained of him,' she said.

'You needn't protest - you have not betrayed him. But I advise you not to give him any more money.'

'Don't you see it is in my interest that he should marry a rich person?' she asked. 'If, as you say, he lives on me, I can only wish to get rid of him; and to put obstacles in the way of his marrying is to increase my own difficulties.'

'I wish very much you would come to me with your difficulties,' said the Doctor. 'Certainly, if I throw him back on your hands, the least I can do is to help you to bear the burden. If you will allow me to say so, then, I shall take the liberty of placing in your hands, for the present, a certain fund for your brother's support.'

Mrs Montgomery stared; she evidently thought he was jesting; but she presently saw that he was not, and the complication of her feelings became painful. 'It seems to me that I ought to be very much offended with you,' she murmured.

'Because I have offered you money? That's a superstition,' said the Doctor. 'You must let me come and see you again, and we will talk about these things. I suppose that some of your children are girls?'

'I have two little girls,' said Mrs Montgomery.

'Well, when they grow up, and begin to think of taking husbands, you will see how anxious you will be about the moral character of these husbands. Then you will understand this visit of mine.'

'Ah, you are not to believe that Morris's moral character is bad.'

The Doctor looked at her a little, with folded arms. 'There is something I should greatly like, as a moral satisfaction. I should like to hear you say, "He is abominably selfish.'

The words came out with the grave distinctness of his voice, and they seemed for an instant to create, to poor Mrs Montgomery's troubled vision, a material image. She gazed at it an instant, an then she turned away. 'You distress me, sir!' she exclaimed. 'He is after all, my brother; and his talents - ' On these last words her voice quavered, and before he knew it she had burst into tears.

'His talents are first-rate,' said the Doctor. 'We must find the proper field for them.' And he assured her most respectfully of his regret at having so greatly discomposed her. 'It's all for my poor Catherine,' he went on. 'You must know her, and you will see.'

Mrs Montgomery brushed away her tears, and blushed al having shed them. 'I should like to know your daughter,' she answered; and then, in an instant - 'Don't let her marry him!'

Doctor Sloper went away with the words gently humming in his ears - 'Don't let her marry him!' They gave him the moral satisfaction of which he had just spoken, and their value was the greater that they had evidently cost a pang to poor little Mrs Montgomery's family pride.