ter
compartment of the cabinet, and disclosed a collection of bottles
inside, containing the various poisons used in medicine. After taking
out the laudanum wanted for the sleeping draught, and placing it on
the dispensary table, he went back to the cabinet, looked into it for a
little while, shook his head doubtfully, and crossed to the open shelves
on the opposite side of the room.

Here, after more consideration, he took down one out of the row of large
chemical bottles before him, filled with a yellow liquid; placing the
bottle on the table, he returned to the cabinet, and opened a side
compartment, containing some specimens of Bohemian glass-work. After
measuring it with his eye, he took from the specimens a handsome purple
flask, high and narrow in form, and closed by a glass stopper. This
he filled with the yellow liquid, leaving a small quantity only at the
bottom of the bottle, and locking up the flask again in the place from
which he had taken it. The bottle was next restored to its place, after
having been filled up with water from the cistern in the Dispensary,
mixed with certain chemical liquids in small quantities, which restored
it (so far as appearances went) to the condition in which it had
been when it was first removed from the shelf. Having completed these
mysterious proceedings, the doctor laughed softly, and went back to his
speaking-tubes to summon the Resident Dispenser next.

The Resident Dispenser made his appearance shrouded in the necessary
white apron from his waist to his feet. The doctor solemnly wrote a
prescription for a composing draught, and handed it to his assistant.

"Wanted immediately, Benjamin," he said in a soft and melancholy voice.
"A lady patient--Mrs. Armadale, Room No. 1, second floor. Ah, dear,
dear!" groaned the doctor, absently; "an anxious case, Benjamin--an
anxious case." He opened the brand-new ledger of the establishment,
and entered the Case at full length, with a brief abstract of the
prescription. "Have you done with the laudanum? Put it back, and lock
the cabinet, and give me the key. Is the draught ready? Label it, 'To
be taken at bedtime,' and give it to the nurse, Benjamin--give it to the
nurse."

While the doctor's lips were issuing these directions, the doctor's
hands were occupied in opening a drawer under the desk on which the
ledger was placed. He took out some gayly printed cards of admission "to
view the Sanitarium, between the hours of two and four