He was reputed to be extremely erudite, a ripe scholar, and
of some fame in scientific research. But of all his discoveries--and
he had made many under the microscope and in space--the most
surprising was the discovery that a lady who owned a deer-park and
many thousands a-year desired him to make her his wife. But he was an
obliging little man, always ready to do a kind thing for anybody; and
he obliged Miss Purling in the way she wished--after all, at some cost
to himself. The marriage meant little less than self-effacement for
him; he was to take his wife's name instead of giving her his; he was
to forego his favourite pursuits, and from an independent man of
science pass into a mere appendage to the Purling property--part and
parcel of his wife's goods and chattels as much as the park-palings,
or her last-purchased dinner-service of rare old "blue."
It was odd that Miss Purling's choice should have fallen where it did;
for her tendencies were decidedly upward, and she would have dearly
loved to be styled "my lady," and to have moved freely in the society
of the "blue-blooded of the land." It was her distrustfulness which
had stood in the way. She feared that in an aristocratic alliance she
could not have made her own terms. And with the results of this
marriage with Dr.
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