CHAPTER XX.
Dr Crofts If there was anything in the world as to which Isabella Dale was quite certain, it was this--that she was not in love with Dr Crofts.
As to being in love with her cousin Bernard, she had never had occasion to ask herself any question on that head.

She liked him very well, but she had never thought of marrying him; and now, when he made his proposal, she could not bring herself to think of it.
But as regards Dr Crofts, she had thought of it, and had make up her mind--in the manner above described.
It may be said that she could not have been justified in discussing the matter even within her own bosom, unless authorised to do so by Dr Crofts himself.

Let it then be considered that Dr Crofts had given her some such authority.

This may be done in more ways than one; and Miss Dale could not have found herself asking herself questions about him, unless there had been fitting occasion for her to do so.
The profession of a medical man in a small provincial town is not often one which gives to its owner in early life a large income.
Perhaps in no career has a man to work harder for what he earns, or to do more work without earning anything.

It has sometimes seemed to me as though the young doctors and the old doctors had agreed to divide between them the different results of their profession,--the young doctors doing all the work and the old doctors taking all the money.