and dismal sort of contemplation upon
Sturk's fallen countenance.

'Well, Ma'am,' said Pell, as he looked on his watch, 'this rigor, you
see, will soon pass away, and you're doing everything we could wish, and
(for he found he had time to scribble a prescription), we'll just order
him a trifle. Good-day, Sir. Your most obedient, Ma'am.'

'Pen and ink in the drawing-room, Doctor Pell,' said Toole,
reverentially.

'Oh! no, _no_, Madam, excuse me,' murmured Doctor Pell, gently pressing
back Mrs. Sturk's fee, the residuum of Dangerfield's bounty, with his
open palm.

'Oh, but Doctor Pell,' urged she, in a persuasive aside, half behind
him, in the shadow of the doorway.

'Pray, Madam, no more--pardon me,' and Doctor Pell, with a peremptory
bow, repelled his fee.

Why do physicians take their honest earnings in this clandestine
way--transacted like favours, secret, sweet, and precious; and pocketed
in dark corners, and whispers, like the wages of sin? Cold Doctor Pell
here refused a very considerable fee. He could on occasion behave
handsomely; but I can't learn that blustering, hilarious Doctor Rogerson
ever refused his.

And the doctor descended, not hastily, but very swiftly, and was in the
drawing-room, and the door shut.

'Gone, poor gentleman!' said Toole, in an under tone--his phraseology
became refined in Pell's presence; he'd have said 'poor devil,' or 'poor
dog,' if he had been with Doctor Rogerson.

Pell held the pen in his thin lips, while he tore off half-a-sheet of
paper, and only shook his head funereally.

So, taking the pen in his fingers, he said, 'We'll give him so and so,
if you approve.'

'Very good, Sir,' said Toole, deferentially; and Pell, not seeming to
hear, dashed off a few spattered lines, with necromantic circles and
zigzags at the end of each.

When Sturk afterwards saw that paper in the fingers of the maid, being
very weak, he did not care to speak; but he signed with a little motion
of his head, and she leaned down to listen.

'Recipe?' whispered the doctor; 'put it--in--the fire;' and he shut his
eyes--tired.

Pell, looking again at his watch, was Doctor Toole's very obedient
servant, and was waylaid by poor little Mrs. Sturk on the lobby.

'Well, Madam, we've put our heads together, and ordered a little matter,
and that rigor--that shivering fit--will subside; and we trust he'll be
easier then; and you've a very competent adviser in Doctor a--a----'

'Toole,' suggested t