. My woman,
Stubbs, saw the apothecary coming downstairs, after bleeding Livy, and
called him into her room; not, indeed, to speak of this matter"--here
Lady Janet caused her voice to be heard by Sir Andrew, who sat, in moody
sulk, right opposite--"it was to ask, if there should not be two pods of
capsicum in every pint of dandelion tea."

"There may be twa horns o' the de'il in it," ejaculated Sir Andrew, "but
I 'll na pit it to my mouth agen. I hae a throat like the fiery furnace
that roasted the three chaps in the Bible."

"It suits your tongue all the better," muttered Lady Janet, and turned
round to the others. "Stubbs, as I was saying, called the man in, and
after some conversation about the dandelion, asked, in a cursory way,
you know, 'How the lady was, upstairs?' He shook his head, and said
nothing.

"'It will not be tedious, I hope?' said Stubbs.

"'These are most uncertain cases,' said he; 'sometimes they last a day,
sometimes eight or nine.'

"'I think you 're very mysterious, doctor,' said Stubbs.

"He muttered something about honor, and, seizing his hat went off, as
Stubbs says, 'as if he was shot!'"

"Honor!" cried one of the hearers.

"Honor!" ejaculated another, with an expression of pure horror.

"Did n't he say, madam," said the blond old lady, "that it wasn't his
branch of the profession?"

"Oh! oh!" broke in the company together, while the younger ladies held
up their fans and giggled behind them.

"I 'm thorry for the poor mother!" sighed Mrs. Malone, who had seven
daughters, each uglier than the other.

"I pity the elder girl," said Lady Janet; "she had a far better tone
about her than the rest."

"And that dear, kind old creature, the aunt. It is said that but for her
care this would have happened long ago," said Mrs. Malone.

"She was, to my thinking, the best of them," echoed the blond lady; "so
discreet, so quiet, and so unobtrusive."

"What could come of their pretension?" said a colonel's widow, with a
very large nose and a very small pension; "they attempted a style of
living quite unsuited to them! The house always full of young men, too."

"You would n't have had them invite old ones, madam," said Lady Janet,
with the air of rebuke the wife of a commander-in-chief can assume to
the colonel's relict.

"It's a very sad affair, indeed," summed up Mrs. White, who, if she had
n't quarrelled with Mr. Howie, would have given him the whole narrative
for the "Satanist."

"W