tory was there beneath that venerable roof! It was
the week after the memorable fight of Inkermann, and some of the best
blood of Britain was ebbing in those dimly lighted cells, whose echoes
gave back heart-sick sighs for home from lips that were soon to be mute
forever. There are unlucky days in the calendar of medicine,--days when
the convalescent makes no progress, and the sick man grows worse; when
medicaments seem mulcted of half their efficacy, and disastrous chances
abound. Doctors rarely reject the influence of this superstition, but
accept it with calm resignation.

Such, at least, seemed the spirit in which two army surgeons now
discussed the events of the day, as they walked briskly for exercise
along one of the corridors of the Convent.

"We shall have a gloomy report to send in to-morrow, Parkes," said the
elder. "Not one of these late operation cases will recover. Hopeton is
sinking fast; Malcolm's wound has put on a treacherous appearance; that
compound fracture shows signs of gangrene; and there's Conway, we
all thought so well of last night, going rapidly, as though from some
internal hemorrhage."

"Poor fellow! it's rather hard to die just when he has arrived at so
much to live for. You know that he is to have a peerage."

"So he told me himself. He said laughingly to me, 'Becknell, my boy, be
careful, you are cutting up no common sort of fellow; it's all lordly
flesh and blood here!' We were afraid the news might over-excite him,
but he took it as easily as possible, and only said, 'How happy it will
make my poor mother;' and, after a moment, 'If I only get back to tell
it to her!'"

"A civilian below," said an hospital sergeant, "wishes to see Mr.
Conway."

"Can't be,--say so," was the curt reply, as the doctor tore, without
reading, the piece of paper on which a name was written.

"The lawyer, I have no doubt," said the other; "as if the poor fellow
could care to hear of title-deeds and rent-rolls now. He 'd rather
have twenty drops of morphine than know that his estate covered half a
county."

The sergeant waited for a second or two to see if the doctor should
reconsider his reply, and then respectfully retired. The stranger,
during the short interval of absence, had denuded himself of great-coat
and snow-shoes, and was briskly chafing his hands before the fire.

"Well, Sergeant, may I see him?" asked he, eagerly.

"No. The doctors won't permit it."

"You did n't tell them who I was,