Afterward, the faculty made the same offer to him, on the consideration that he had stood so well, during his course, until the examination.

But he declined it: it was contrary to his principle of never leaving his country." "What sort of a man was the friend ?" asked Bressant, who was paying close attention, with his hand at his ear.
"Clever, with a winning manner, and fine-looking; had a pleasant, easy voice; never lost his temper that I know of." The professor paused, perhaps to arrange his ideas, ere he went on.

"The man I'm telling you of left the college-yard with as much of the world before him as lies between the fifteenth and twenty-fifth parallels of latitude, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

He'd made up his mind to be a physician; and in a year he was qualified to enter the hospital; worked there four years, and, by the time he was twenty-nine, he had an office of his own and a good practice.
"At last, he fell in love with a beautiful woman; she was the daughter of one of his patients--a Southerner with a little Spanish blood in him.
The young doctor had--under Providence--saved the man's life; and, since he himself came of a good family--none better--and had a respectable income, there wasn't much difficulty in arranging the match.

The only condition was, that the father should never be out of reach of his daughter, as long as he lived." "Was this Southerner rich ?" "Very rich; and a dowry would go with the daughter enough to make them more than independent for the rest of their lives.