ult decipi. And when they were gone, she would
take down two little boxes Gerard had made her; and on one of these
she had written To-day, and on the other To-morrow, and put the smaller
coins into "To-day," and the larger into "To-morrow," along with such
of her gold pieces as had survived the journey from Sevenbergen, and
the expenses of housekeeping in a strange place, and so she met current
expenses, and laid by for the rainy day she saw coming, and mixed drugs
with simples, and vice with virtue. On this last score her conscience
pricked her sore, and after each day's comedy, she knelt down and prayed
God to forgive her "for the sake of her child." But lo and behold, cure
and cure was reported to her; so then her conscience began to harden.
Martin Wittenhaagen had of late been a dead weight on her hands. Like
most men who had endured great hardships, he had stiffened rather
suddenly. But though less supple, he was as strong as ever, and at his
own pace could have carried the doctor herself round Rotterdam city. He
carried her slops instead.

In this new business he showed the qualities of a soldier: unreasoning
obedience, punctuality, accuracy, despatch, and drunkenness.

He fell among "good fellows;" the blackguards plied him with Schiedam;
he babbled, he bragged.

Doctor Margaret had risen very high in his estimation. All this
brandishing of a crocodile for a standard, and setting a dotard in
ambush, and getting rid of slops, and taking good money in exchange,
struck him not as Science but something far superior, Strategy. And he
boasted in his cups and before a mixed company how "me and my General we
are a biting of the burghers."

When this revelation had had time to leaven the city, his General,
Doctor Margaret, received a call from the constables; they took her,
trembling and begging subordinate machines to forgive her, before the
burgomaster; and by his side stood real physicians, a terrible row, in
long robes and square caps, accusing her of practising unlawfully on the
bodies of the duke's lieges. At first she was too frightened to say
a word. Novice like, the very name of "Law" paralyzed her. But being
questioned closely, but not so harshly as if she had been ugly, she told
the truth; she had long been her father's pupil, and had but followed
his system, and she had cured many; "and it is not for myself in very
deed, sirs, but I have two poor helpless honest men at home upon my
hands, and how else can