I said that I did not think you and Lilian would suit each other in the long run; reflection confirms me in that supposition.

Do not look at me so incredulously and so sadly.

Listen, and take heed.

Ask yourself what, as a man whose days are devoted to a laborious profession, whose ambition is entwined with its success, whose mind must be absorbed in its pursuits,--ask yourself what kind of a wife you would have sought to win; had not this sudden fancy for a charming face rushed over your better reason, and obliterated all previous plans and resolutions.
Surely some one with whom your heart would have been quite at rest; by whom your thoughts would have been undistracted from the channels into which your calling should concentrate their flow; in short, a serene companion in the quiet holiday of a trustful home! Is it not so ?" "You interpret my own thoughts when they have turned towards marriage.
But what is there in Lilian Ashleigh that should mar the picture you have drawn ?" "What is there in Lilian Ashleigh which in the least accords with the picture?
In the first place, the wife of a young physician should not be his perpetual patient.

The more he loves her, and the more worthy she may be of love, the more her case will haunt him wherever he goes.