mere groper into the bodily infirmities of his fellow-creatures. By all the mummies of the Pharaohs! I would fain think better of the understanding of my learned leech, than suppose him indifferent to the amount of his guerdon." "So saying, he took from under the pillow of his chaise-longue a purse containing, apparently, about a hundred pieces of gold, and almost flung it into my lap. "A very moderate portion of this will satisfy my claims, when you have done me the honour to consult me," said I, laying it coldly on the table. "What can you 66 How know you that?" cried the old gentleman. surmise of the nature of the service required of you, for which I thus tender pre-payment?" "What, indeed!-or how can you, sir, determine whether it may suit me to accept either the offer or the charge ?" "A physician is servant of the public," said the old cynic, scornfully. " But not its slave! I, at least, being independent in circumstances, am not to be hired like a hackney-coach, by the first comer. In proof of which, sir, I have the honour to wish you a good-night. I am not used to be thus peremptorily dealt with.' "The old man shrugged his shoulders, implying that he thought me a blockhead; when having pushed the heavy purse towards him, I prepared for instant departure. "Not quite so fast, doctor," cried he; "I do not like you the less for this little outburst of spirit. You are just the man described to me-a pepper-pot, but a gentleman. Some day or other we shall perhaps be better acquainted, and exercise mutual forbearance towards each other's oddities. Seat yourself and listen." A command to 'seat yourself and listen,' usually prognosticates a long story. My time being sadly bespoken, I was forced to be chary of it, and my vexation being, I suppose, depicted in my countenance, the old gentleman exclaimed, with a dry, short laugh, "Ha! ha! You are afraid I should keep you maundering on till midnight, eh? Don't be alarmed, as some fellow or other said about the parson and his lengthy sermon. The man who can't explain his meaning in half an hour, doesn't understand his business. Twenty minutes, sir, and you are free! Moreover, throughout your intercouse with me, your time will be exactly calculated and honourably remunerated-and now to business. What may be your opinion, pray, of the young fellow who brought you hither to-night?" "As we have not been three hours acquainted, and our acquaintance is of the slightest kind, I was beginning 66 "Pho! pho! pho!" interrupted the strange old man; no one is ever ten minutes alone with another, without imbibing decided impressions concerning him-like or dislike-confidence or mistrust. with your notions. What did you think of him?" Out "As he spoke he rolled the light sofa nearer to the table, and peered into my eyes. "That he appeared a very gentlemanly young man," said I. "Gentlemanly? Ha! ha! The merit of his tailor, hatter, hosier! Say more, or say nothing! Answer me at once, doctor!-would you not intrust yourself blindly to his hands? Are you not satisfied from a certain air of high blood and breeding in his person and manners, that you have only honourable entertainment to expect at his hands?" "I have already, sir, afforded some proof of confidence in your young friend," said I; "nor is it as yet diminished by my experience here.' "Ha! ha!-stiff and straightforward as a crocodile !" cried the old man. "But you are wasting the time which, as you observed just now, is not your own. In a word, the patient concerning whom I am interested to procure your opinion, abides not in this house; nor do I choose you to know to what house you are conducted for the purpose of an interview. Will you, therefore submit to be blindfolded, to accompany the same gentleman in the same cab, half an hour's distance from this spot?" "Certainly not," said I. "Though free from apprehension of personal ill-usage, I respect myself too much to act in concert with those who evince a total want of confidence in my discretion." "I have as much confidence in your discretion as in any other person's," replied my singular host, "but the best of us are babblers and boasters. It is not, however, so much what you will whisper to-morrow at your club of which I stand in fear, as the influence of name and position in your verdict upon the patient, an eminent person,-a person whose antecedents are so well known to yourself and all the world, that your opinion must be prejudiced. You would ground your judgment upon circumstances, not upon observation; whereas I am desirous of a fresh, free, and unshackled decision on a case that has interested hundreds of your brethren in this and other countries." "Once more it occurred to me that I was conversing with a man of disturbed intellects; and with his former perspicuity he interpreted the look of uneasiness contracting my brows. "No, doctor, I am not mad-saner perhaps than yourself in this matter." "My determination, sir, has never wavered," said I. "As a physician of regular practice I have no occasion to digress into adventures and mummeries to increase my list of patients. Such tricks as blindfolding, or masking, have their fitting place in the pages of a secondrate novel, or the scenes of some vulgar melodrama, but are out of my line of business. Permit me, therefore, to ring for the carriage that brought me hither." "You refuse?—refuse, with a hundred golden reasons for compliance glittering before you?" said the old gentleman, withdrawing his chin from his bony hands, and clenching them with rage. "I refuse!" "But have you the right to refuse ?" persisted he. "When once a man by the combined force of genius, study, and experience attains your eminence in the profession, has he a right to withhold his aid from an unfortunate being, struggling against a cruel malady and the blunders of the faculty, whom his advice may restore to an afflicted family?” "I was not to be deluded by the flatteries thus plausibly applied. "Let me see my patient, sir, by fair means, in the ordinary way," cried I," and my utmost exertions will evince the sincerity of my professional zeal." The "Instead of replying, the old man clapped his hands so eagerly that I concluded my terms were about to be complied with. venerable servant instantly reappeared. "Conduct this gentleman to the stables," said he; "the chariot will instantly convey him as speedily as possible back to town. Do me the justice to accept this remuneration for your visit," concluded he, forcing five guineas into my hand. "My young friend cannot drive you home again, as he must instantly seek the services of some more accommodating medical attendant.” The "Some signal may have passed at the same time between the master and his attendant, for I was, I admit, so nettled at his imperious mode of dismissing me, that I followed the domestic rapidly out of the room, with the expectation of being recalled ere I reached the carriage. As I traversed the vestibule I determined to demand an interview with the young man who had escorted me down. But scarcely had I stepped upon the gravel of the entrance-drive, when, turning to signify my wishes to my companion, I found myself alone. house-door had suddenly closed upon me, and all was darkness. It was not difficult to retrace the few steps I had advanced from the door, but having regained it, what did I obtain ? There was neither bell nor knocker. All that met my hands amid the darkness of the night was the cold bronze of the knob-nailed portal; to make myself heard through which was as if to knock at the tomb of the Capulets. Beyond, on either side, extended only the rugged fragments of rockwork forming the wall of this mysterious habitation, along which I crossed, first to the right then to the left, till they became unapproachable behind the thorny holly-branches of the shubbery. Not a window, not a loophole, not a means of ingress in any direction. The only objects I encountered in my researches were the clammy, bloated leaves of the cacti and other trailing plants, which, moistened with dew, revolted the touch like the slimy skin of some noisome, crawling rep tile. "Having wasted more than an hour in infructuous attempts to reenter the house, make myself heard by the inmates, or reach the stables, a drizzling rain began to fall, and as not a vestige of shelter presented itself, it suddenly occurred to me to approach the gate and clamour at the house-bell till I obtained admittance. The gate it was easy to make out, but neither bell nor bell-wire could I find. Either they had been purposely removed, or the bell rung on our arrival by my companion was suspended to some lofty tree. I might as well have attempted to force my way into a fortress, as into this abominable villa." "You were, in short, a solitary prisoner, between the garden paling and an impervious wall, exposed to a soaking rain. What a persecu tion !" "But as if all this, madam, did not suffice, while endeavouring to find the bell I was startled by a low growl proceeding from the neighbouring bushes, and on renewing my attempts, two house-dogs of colossal size, came prowling about my legs, resisting with surly defiance all attempts at conciliation, by hand or voice, in a manner which persons conversant with the demonstrations of canine nature hold far more alarming than a snarl. "In a fit of desperation I now snatched at the handle of the gate, when, to my utter amazement, the latch yielded. Without hesitation I rushed forth. The gate closed behind me with a snap; and finding myself in a lane, and secure at least from the attacks of the gaunt guardians of this trap-hole of a villa, I determined to walk on briskly towards the nearest habitation (which as far as I could remember was a small alehouse by the road-side, about a quarter of a mile distant) whence I might despatch a person in quest of a vehicle to take me back, or at all events satisfy my curiosity concerning the originators of the extraordinary hoax of which I was the victim. Before I attained the spot, however, I became perplexed by a turning, and taking the way I flattered myself led to the London road (my hat being slouched over my eyes, and my collar drawn up to my ears as a shelter against the rain), I trudged onwards along a raised causeway, which gradually sank into the road, and became miry almost as a quagmire. Another moment and I found my feet actually in the water, a step further, I should have been floating in the cold, dark waters of the Thames. "I had attained the river it seemed at a spot used a sa watering-place for cattle; overhung by the straggling branches of a broken old willow-tree; a most unsafe place for foot-travellers on a starless night. All I had now to do, was to retrace my steps towards the cross-road, on reaching which, I suffered myself to be again puzzled, again misled. To find the well-remembered public-house, baffled in short all my attempts! I passed the gates of several market-gardens, in which there were habitations. But at these in succession I rang in vain. The first light I discerned after quitting the hateful villa, was "I have "But I humbly entreat your ladyship's pardon," cried Sir Jedediah, interrupting himself, as he glanced at the timepiece. intruded on your ladyship's time far beyond any reasonable hour of retiring to rest. In the engrossment of my egotism, I forgot that I am addressing an invalid, of whose ailments I have not been as yet enabled to form a definite idea. You will, perhaps, permit me to consider this a friendly visit, and return to-morrow afternoon, for a professional investigation of your symptoms? Meanwhile, I rejoice to perceive a sensible diminution of the languor I noticed in your ladyship's appearance on my first entrance. There is a slight effusion of colour on your ladyship's cheek, and your eyes are brightened, at this moment, by a degree of animation, denoting, perhaps, feverish excitement, but which might be mistaken for the looks of a young person in perfect health.” My spirits have been indeed lightened of a heavy load this evening," said I, ashamed to own how deeply I was interested in his narrative; and how gladly I would have sat up till one in the morning to listen to its conclusion. "It is perhaps owing to the slight stream of air you introduced into the room by opening the window, that I have been thus relieved. I am apt to confine myself to too stagnant an atmosphere." "On that point, with your ladyship's leave, we will decide to-morrow," said he, rising to take leave, after politely declining the offered fee. "And on the morrow," cried I, in my turn, almost as much interested as Lady Anne had been herself in the first instance, to hear the conclusion of Sir Jedediah's strange adventure; "what did he suggest? and above all, what more did you learn of the extraordinary people and place with whom he had been thus singularly brought into collision?" "That secret constitutes a main portion of Sir Jedediah's professional Arcana," said Lady Anne, with a provoking smile. "If you also are suffering from that worst of nervous disorders called ennui, you have no right to pretend to be cured gratis. Come here to-morrow at one o'clock, and meet my incomparable doctor; you shall then, if you think proper, learn from his own lips the conclusion of his story. No one but himself can do justice to the adventure." This was provoking enough, for I could only understand my fair cousin's refusal as a hint for dismission; and so excited were my feelings by all I had heard, and the expressive brilliancy of her countenance animated by the interest of the moment, that I would fain have listened for hours. But the waxlights were burning low, and even Flora got up and stretched herself, as though to remind me that the hour of rest for man and beast was at hand. "One word more, lady fair," said I, as I prepared to take leave. "Did the patient so mysteriously concealed from Sir Jedediah, turn out to be " "Ask him yourself," cried Lady Anne, extending her delicate forefinger towards me to be shaken. "Meanwhile, from the eagerness depicted in your countenance, I see that you are as likely to become a convert as myself to the new system, as well as a most capital sub.. ject for Sir Jedediah Claversham's HOT. WATER CURE." SONNET. THE world is with me, and its many cares, The shades of former and of future years— Foreboding fancies and prophetic tears, Quelling a spirit that was once elate. Heavens! what a wilderness the earth appears, Where Youth, and Mirth, and Health are out of date! But no-a laugh of innocence and joy Resounds, like music of the fairy race, And gladly turning from the world's annoy I gaze upon a little radiant face, And bless, internally, the merry boy Who "makes a son-shine in a shady place." T. H. Dec.-VOL. LXVI. NO. CCLXIV. 2 к |