CHAPTER VII.
RIVERSIDE COTTAGE Mrs.Johnson did not like Dr.Richards, and yet he became an almost daily visitor at Riverside Cottage, where one face at least grew brighter when he came, and one pair of eyes beamed on him a welcome.

His new code of morality worked admirably.

Mr.Howard himself was not more regular at church, or Alice more devout, than Dr.Richards.

The children, whom he had denominated "ragged brats," were no longer spurned with contempt, but fed with peanuts and molasses candy.

He was popular with the children, but the parents, clear-sighted, treated him most shabbily at his back, accusing him of caring only for Miss Alice's good opinion.
This was what the poor said, and what many others thought.