"Mother is well and so is father, better than usual. A new doctor has settled in town, an enterprising young fellow with the acquirements of foreign study still clinging to him. Father said that if I meant to hold my own in the town I must study abroad, too, and if eventually I concluded to step aside and let Hastings have the field I would need some work over here wherever I might settle. He thinks he can keep up our end for six months and then I shall go back and make up my mind whether father shall retire in my behalf, or whether he will keep a few of his oldest patients and transfer the rest to Dr. Hastings."
"You are not going to desert us, Dr. Paul?" said Mrs. Corner.
"I am not sure. At all events we shall see when I get back. You all have deserted your old neighbors, why shouldn't I follow your example?"
"But not for always," said Nan eagerly. "We shall go back to stay some day, shan't we, mother?"
"Are you sure you will want to, Nan?"
"I am sure I would like to feel that I could come away sometimes, but there is no place like home. I want to live most of my life there, and I surely want to die just where I was born."
"It isn't a very big world, that little town of ours," said Dr. Paul smiling at her ardor.
"It is big enough. After we have seen the great outside world it will be the most delightful thing to go back and think about it all."
"And your music, your college career and all that?" said Miss Helen.
"Don't you think it will give as much pleasure there, the music, I mean, as anywhere? And I am sure our University has brains enough in it to keep my poor supply guessing. Nobody need rust out where our University is." Nan spoke proudly.