young Union doctor had been sent for from the village for the
purpose. A constitutional fulness of blood in the head had been
aggravated by his mode of life, and immediate discipline, severe regimen,
and abstinence from business or excitement, were the only means of
averting dangerous illness; in fact, his condition might at any time
become exceedingly critical, though perseverance in care might possibly
prevent all absolute peril. He himself was thoroughly frightened. His
own sensations and forebodings seconded the sentence too completely for
resistance; it was almost a relief to give way; and his own method of
driving away discomfort had so signally failed, that he was willing to
resign himself to others.

Phoebe assisted at the cupping valorously and handily. She had a civil
speech from young Mr. Jackson, and Mervyn, as she bade him good night,
said, 'I can't spare you now, Phoebe.'

'Not till you are better,' she answered.

And so she told Miss Charlecote, and wrote to Robert; but neither was
satisfied. Honora said it was unlucky. It might certainly be a duty to
nurse Mervyn if he were really ill, and if he made himself fit company
for her, but it would not set her straight with the neighbourhood; and
Robert wrote in visible displeasure at this complication of the
difficulty. 'If Mervyn's habits had disordered his health, it did not
render his pursuits more desirable for his sisters. If he wanted
Phoebe's attendance, let him come to town with her to the Bannermans; but
his ailments must not be made an excuse for detaining her in so
unsuitable a position as that into which he had brought her.'

It was not so kind a letter as Phoebe would have claimed from Robert, and
it was the more trying as Mervyn, deprived of the factitious exhilaration
that had kept him up, and lowered by treatment, was dispirited,
depressed, incapable of being entertained, cross at her failures, yet
exacting of her attendance. He had business at his office in the City
that needed his presence, so he insisted till the last morning upon
going, and then owned himself in no state to go farther than the study,
where he tried to write, but found his brain so weak and confused that he
could hardly complete a letter, and was obliged to push over even the
simplest calculation to Phoebe. In vain she tried to divert his mind
from this perilous exertion; he had not taste nor cultivation enough to
be interested in anything she could devise, and