.
Bloss. A little double-knock interrupted the conversation; Dr. Wosky was
announced, and duly shown in. He was a little man with a red
face--dressed of course in black, with a stiff white neckerchief. He had
a very good practice, and plenty of money, which he had amassed by
invariably humouring the worst fancies of all the females of all the
families he had ever been introduced into. Mrs. Tibbs offered to retire,
but was entreated to stay.

'Well, my dear ma'am, and how are we?' inquired Wosky, in a soothing
tone.

'Very ill, doctor--very ill,' said Mrs. Bloss, in a whisper

'Ah! we must take care of ourselves;--we must, indeed,' said the
obsequious Wosky, as he felt the pulse of his interesting patient.

'How is our appetite?'

Mrs. Bloss shook her head.

'Our friend requires great care,' said Wosky, appealing to Mrs. Tibbs,
who of course assented. 'I hope, however, with the blessing of
Providence, that we shall be enabled to make her quite stout again.'
Mrs. Tibbs wondered in her own mind what the patient would be when she
was made quite stout.

'We must take stimulants,' said the cunning Wosky--'plenty of
nourishment, and, above all, we must keep our nerves quiet; we positively
must not give way to our sensibilities. We must take all we can get,'
concluded the doctor, as he pocketed his fee, 'and we must keep quiet.'

'Dear man!' exclaimed Mrs. Bloss, as the doctor stepped into the
carriage.

'Charming creature indeed--quite a lady's man!' said Mrs. Tibbs, and Dr.
Wosky rattled away to make fresh gulls of delicate females, and pocket
fresh fees.

As we had occasion, in a former paper, to describe a dinner at Mrs.
Tibbs's; and as one meal went off very like another on all ordinary
occasions; we will not fatigue our readers by entering into any other
detailed account of the domestic economy of the establishment. We will
therefore proceed to events, merely premising that the mysterious tenant
of the back drawing-room was a lazy, selfish hypochondriac; always
complaining and never ill. As his character in many respects closely
assimilated to that of Mrs. Bloss, a very warm friendship soon sprung up
between them. He was tall, thin, and pale; he always fancied he had a
severe pain somewhere or other, and his face invariably wore a pinched,
screwed-up expression; he looked, indeed, like a man who had got his feet
in a tub of exceedingly hot water, against his will.

For two or three months after Mrs