ched a
messenger for the doctor.

The doctor, who was a red-nosed gentleman with a great bunch of seals
dangling below a waistcoat of ribbed black satin, arrived with all
speed, and taking his seat by the bedside of poor Nell, drew out his
watch, and felt her pulse. Then he looked at her tongue, then he felt
her pulse again, and while he did so, he eyed the half-emptied
wine-glass as if in profound abstraction.

'I should give her,' said the doctor at length, 'a tea-spoonful, every
now and then, of hot brandy and water.'

'Why, that's exactly what we've done, sir!' said the delighted landlady.

'I should also,' observed the doctor, who had passed the foot-bath on
the stairs, 'I should also,' said the doctor, in the voice of an
oracle, 'put her feet in hot water, and wrap them up in flannel. I
should likewise,' said the doctor with increased solemnity, 'give her
something light for supper--the wing of a roasted fowl now--'

'Why, goodness gracious me, sir, it's cooking at the kitchen fire this
instant!' cried the landlady. And so indeed it was, for the
schoolmaster had ordered it to be put down, and it was getting on so
well that the doctor might have smelt it if he had tried; perhaps he
did.

'You may then,' said the doctor, rising gravely, 'give her a glass of
hot mulled port wine, if she likes wine--'

'And a toast, Sir?' suggested the landlady. 'Ay,' said the doctor, in
the tone of a man who makes a dignified concession. 'And a toast--of
bread. But be very particular to make it of bread, if you please,
ma'am.'

With which parting injunction, slowly and portentously delivered, the
doctor departed, leaving the whole house in admiration of that wisdom
which tallied so closely with their own. Everybody said he was a very
shrewd doctor indeed, and knew perfectly what people's constitutions
were; which there appears some reason to suppose he did.

While her supper was preparing, the child fell into a refreshing sleep,
from which they were obliged to rouse her when it was ready. As she
evinced extraordinary uneasiness on learning that her grandfather was
below stairs, and as she was greatly troubled at the thought of their
being apart, he took his supper with her. Finding her still very
restless on this head, they made him up a bed in an inner room, to
which he presently retired. The key of this chamber happened by good
fortune to be on that side of the door which was in Nell's room; she
turned it on h