urite amusement with some of the men to start a
subject which they knew would excite him, for the sake of "getting a
rise out of the doctor," as they termed it. But I am digressing.

The medicine Ellis gave Harry threw him into a heavy sleep, from which
he did not awake until late in the morning, when he appeared perfectly
conscious. The fever had in great measure abated, and on Dr. Probehurt's
arrival he was fain to confess a surprising improvement had taken place,
and that, if not positively out of danger, the patient was in a fair way
to become so. As for Ellis, he was exactly like one beside himself.
He ran all over the house--into bedrooms and all sorts of places where
~226~~he had not the slightest business, shaking hands with every one,
and repeating, "I knew it--I knew it--I always told you so--it would
have killed any other man, but it couldn't kill him!"

Let us pass in silence over the first interview between Sir John
Oaklands and his son. There are some of the deeper feelings of our
nature, planted in our bosoms by the hand of God Himself, which, when
called forth to their fullest extent by the chances of life, reveal so
clearly their divine origin, that those who witness their display stand
reverently by, and, with throbbing hearts and averted eyes, bow the
head as in presence of some holy thing; and if such pure and sacred
influences shed their lustre over that meeting, and the old man wept
tears of deep and fervent thankfulness on the neck of the son whom
he had, as it were, received from the dead, far be it from us, with
sacrilegious hand, to remove the veil which shrouds the hallowed
mysteries of feeling.

From that day Oaklands began to amend slowly, and, at the end of another
week, even the cautious Dr. Probehurt declared all immediate danger
was over; for which admission, however, he took care fully to indemnify
himself, by detailing at length every possible evil which might accrue
for the future. The state of weakness to which Harry's once herculean
frame was reduced was melancholy to witness; for many days he was unable
to turn in his bed without assistance, and even when he began to recover
his strength, it was by very slow and lingering degrees. Utterly unable
to support himself, he was lifted from his bed to a sofa, and wheeled
into the drawing-room, where all our powers of entertainment were called
into requisition to relieve the monotony of such a state of existence.
In doing this, Fanny mad