cordingly, next morning, when her nephew
was about to undergo his diurnal baptism, she produced the commission,
whereby she conceived herself empowered to overrule such inhuman
proceedings, but she was disappointed in her expectation, confident as
it was; not that Mrs. Pickle pretended to differ in opinion from Dr.
Colocynth, "for whose character and sentiments," said she, "I have such
veneration, that I shall carefully observe the caution implied in this
very certificate, by which, far from condemning my method of practice,
he only asserts that killing is murder; an asseveration, the truth of
which, it is to be hoped, I shall never dispute."

Mrs. Grizzle, who, sooth to say, had rather too superficially considered
the clause by which she thought herself authorized, perused the paper
with more accuracy, and was confounded at her own want of penetration.
Yet, though she was confuted, she was by no means convinced that her
objections to the cold bath were unreasonable; on the contrary, after
having bestowed sundry opprobrious epithets on the physician, for his
want of knowledge and candour, she protested in the most earnest and
solemn manner the pernicious practice of dipping the child--a piece
of cruelty which, with God's assistance, she should never suffer to
be inflicted on her own issue; and washing her hands of the melancholy
consequence that would certainly ensue, shut herself up in her closet
to indulge her sorrow and vexation. She was deceived, however, in her
prognostic. The boy, instead of declining in point of health, seemed to
acquire fresh vigour from every plunge, as if he had been resolved to
discredit the wisdom and foresight of his aunt, who in all probability
could never forgive him for this want of reverence and respect. This
conjecture is founded upon her behaviour to him in the sequel of his
infancy, during which she was known to torture him more than once, when
she had opportunities of thrusting pins into his flesh, without any
danger of being detected. In short, her affections were in a little time
altogether alienated from this hope of her family, whom she abandoned to
the conduct of his mother, whose province it undoubtedly was to manage
the nurture of her own child; while she herself resumed her operations
upon the commodore, whom she was resoled at any rate to captivate and
enslave. And it must be owned that Mrs. Grizzle's knowledge of the human
heart never shone so conspicuous as in the methods