d relative went on, "that I am
not so well to-day. He forbids me to see any strangers; and he orders
me, if I read at all, only to read the lightest and the most amusing
books. 'Do nothing, Lady Verinder, to weary your head, or to quicken
your pulse'--those were his last words, Drusilla, when he left me
to-day."

There was no help for it but to yield again--for the moment only, as
before. Any open assertion of the infinitely superior importance of such
a ministry as mine, compared with the ministry of the medical man, would
only have provoked the doctor to practise on the human weakness of his
patient, and to threaten to throw up the case. Happily, there are more
ways than one of sowing the good seed, and few persons are better versed
in those ways than myself.

"You might feel stronger, dear, in an hour or two," I said. "Or you
might wake, to-morrow morning, with a sense of something wanting, and
even this unpretending volume might be able to supply it. You will let
me leave the book, aunt? The doctor can hardly object to that!"

I slipped it under the sofa cushions, half in, and half out, close by
her handkerchief, and her smelling-bottle. Every time her hand searched
for either of these, it would touch the book; and, sooner or later
(who knows?) the book might touch HER. After making this arrangement, I
thought it wise to withdraw. "Let me leave you to repose, dear aunt; I
will call again to-morrow." I looked accidentally towards the window as
I said that. It was full of flowers, in boxes and pots. Lady Verinder
was extravagantly fond of these perishable treasures, and had a habit of
rising every now and then, and going to look at them and smell them. A
new idea flashed across my mind. "Oh! may I take a flower?" I said--and
got to the window unsuspected, in that way. Instead of taking away a
flower, I added one, in the shape of another book from my bag, which
I left, to surprise my aunt, among the geraniums and roses. The happy
thought followed, "Why not do the same for her, poor dear, in every
other room that she enters?" I immediately said good-bye; and, crossing
the hall, slipped into the library. Samuel, coming up to let me out,
and supposing I had gone, went down-stairs again. On the library table
I noticed two of the "amusing books" which the infidel doctor had
recommended. I instantly covered them from sight with two of my own
precious publications. In the breakfast-room I found my aunt's favourite
canary s