Mary was thirteen when she came to take up permanent abode as mistress of the establishment--or, at any rate, to act as the only mistress which the establishment possessed.

This advent greatly changed the tenor of the doctor's ways.

He had been before pure bachelor; not a room in his house had been comfortably furnished; he at first commenced in a makeshift sort of way, because he had not at his command the means of commencing otherwise; and he had gone on in the same fashion, because the exact time had never come at which it was imperative in him to set his house in order.

He had had no fixed hour for his meals, no fixed place for his books, no fixed wardrobe for his clothes.

He had a few bottles of good wine in his cellar, and occasionally asked a brother bachelor to take a chop with him; but beyond this he had touched very little on the cares of housekeeping.