The
daisies have thrice bloomed on Camberwell-green; the sparrows have thrice
repeated their vernal chirps in Camberwell-grove; but the Miss Maldertons
are still unmated. Miss Teresa's case is more desperate than ever; but
Flamwell is yet in the zenith of his reputation; and the family have the
same predilection for aristocratic personages, with an increased aversion
to anything _low_.

CHAPTER VI--THE BLACK VEIL

One winter's evening, towards the close of the year 1800, or within a
year or two of that time, a young medical practitioner, recently
established in business, was seated by a cheerful fire in his little
parlour, listening to the wind which was beating the rain in pattering
drops against the window, or rumbling dismally in the chimney. The night
was wet and cold; he had been walking through mud and water the whole
day, and was now comfortably reposing in his dressing-gown and slippers,
more than half asleep and less than half awake, revolving a thousand
matters in his wandering imagination. First, he thought how hard the
wind was blowing, and how the cold, sharp rain would be at that moment
beating in his face, if he were not comfortably housed at home. Then,
his mind reverted to his annual Christmas visit to his native place and
dearest friends; he thought how glad they would all be to see him, and
how happy it would make Rose if he could only tell her that he had found
a patient at last, and hoped to have more, and to come down again, in a
few months' time, and marry her, and take her home to gladden his lonely
fireside, and stimulate him to fresh exertions. Then, he began to wonder
when his first patient would appear, or whether he was destined, by a
special dispensation of Providence, never to have any patients at all;
and then, he thought about Rose again, and dropped to sleep and dreamed
about her, till the tones of her sweet merry voice sounded in his ears,
and her soft tiny hand rested on his shoulder.

There _was_ a hand upon his shoulder, but it was neither soft nor tiny;
its owner being a corpulent round-headed boy, who, in consideration of
the sum of one shilling per week and his food, was let out by the parish
to carry medicine and messages. As there was no demand for the medicine,
however, and no necessity for the messages, he usually occupied his
unemployed hours--averaging fourteen a day--in abstracting peppermint
drops, taking animal nourishment, and going to sleep.

'A lady,