The next year or two was spent in quiet life at home. It was made evident that, beside her inclination¹ and natural fitness for her chosen work, our student was also developing the other most important requisite², a capacity for hard study and patient continuance. There had been as little said as possible about the plan, but it was not long before the propriety³ of it became a favorite subject of discussion. It is quite unnecessary, perhaps, to state that everybody had his or her own opinion of the wisdom of such a course, and both Dr. Leslie and his ward⁴ suffered much reproach and questioning, as the comments ranged from indignation to amusement. But it was as true of Nan's calling, as of all others, that it would be her own failure to make it respected from which any just contempt might come, and she had thrown herself into her chosen career with such zeal⁵, and pride, and affectionate desire to please her teacher, that the small public who had at first jeered⁶ or condemned⁷ her came at last to accepting the thing as inevitable⁸ and a matter of course, even if they did not actually approve. There was such a vigorous determination in the minds of the doctor and his pupil that Nan should not only be a doctor but a good one, that anything less than a decided⁹ fitness for the profession would have doomed¹⁰ them both to disappointment, even with such unwearied effort and painstaking¹¹. In the earlier years of his practice Dr. Leslie had been much sought as an

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