Mildred was pleased out of all proportion to the
compliment. Said she with frank eagerness, ``Then
I'm not altogether hopeless?''
``As a character, no indeed,'' replied he. ``But as a
career-- I was about to say, you may set your mind
at rest. I shall never try to collect for my services.
I am doing all this solely out of obstinacy.''
``Obstinacy?'' asked the puzzled girl.
``The impossible attracts me. That's why I've never
been interested to make a career in law or politics or
those things. I care only for the thing that can't be
done. When I saw you and studied you, as I study
every new thing, I decided that you could not possibly
make a career.''
``Why have you changed your mind?'' she interrupted eagerly.
``I haven't,'' replied he. ``If I had, I should have
lost interest in you. Just as soon as you show signs of
making a career, I shall lose interest in you. I have a
friend, a doctor, who will take only cases where cure is
impossible. Looking at you, it occurred to me that
here was a chance to make an experiment more interesting
than any of his.
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