as hero.

CHAPTER LV.

IN WHICH DR. TOOLE, IN FULL COSTUME, STANDS UPON THE HEARTH-STONE OF THE
CLUB, AND ILLUMINATES THE COMPANY WITH HIS BACK TO THE FIRE.

Two or three minutes later, the hall-door of Sturk's mansion opened
wide, and the figure of the renowned doctor from Dublin, lighted up with
a candle from behind, and with the link from before, glided swiftly down
the steps, and disappeared into the coach with a sharp clang of the
door. Up jumps the footman, and gives his link a great whirl about his
head. The maid stands on the step with her hand before the flaring
candle. 'The Turk's Head, in Werburgh Street,' shouts the footman, and
smack goes the coachman's whip, and the clang and rattle begin.

'That's Alderman Blunkett--he's dying,' said the major, by way of gloss
on the footman's text; and away went the carriage with thundering
wheels, and trailing sparks behind it, as if the wild huntsman had
furnished its fleet and shadowy team.

'He has ten guineas in his pocket for that--a guinea a minute, by Jove,
coining, no less,' said the major, whose pipe was out, and he thinking
of going in to replenish it. 'We'll have Toole here presently, depend
upon it.'

He had hardly spoken when Toole, in a halo of candle-light, emerged from
Sturk's hall-door. With one foot on the steps, the doctor paused to give
a parting direction about chicken-broth and white-wine whey.

These last injunctions on the door-steps had begun, perhaps in a
willingness to let folk see and even hear that the visit was
professional; and along with the lowering and awfully serious
countenance with which they were delivered, had grown into a habit, so
that, as now, he practised them even in solitude and darkness.

Then Toole was seen to approach the Phoenix, in full blow, his cane
under his arm. With his full-dressed wig on, he was always grand and
AEsculapian, and reserved withal, and walked with a measured tread, and a
sad and important countenance, which somehow made him look more chubby;
and he was a good deal more formal with his friends at the inn-door, and
took snuff before he answered them. But this only lasted some eight or
ten minutes after a consultation or momentous visit, and would melt away
insensibly in the glow of the club-parlour, sometimes reviving for a
minute, when the little mirror that sloped forward from the wall, showed
him a passing portrait of his grand wig and toggery. And it was pleasant
to observe how the