a drowned
weazel than a terrier. He was trembling violently, and whined
piteously, as they gave him to me; nevertheless, he attempted to wag his
tail and lick my hands. In both attempts he failed. His tail was too
wet to wag--but it wriggled.

"He'd have saved himself, sir," said the man who brought him, "only
there was a rope round his neck, which had caught on a coal-scuttle and
held him. He's not hurt, sir, though he do seem as if some one had bin
tryin' to choke him."

"My poor doggie!" said I, fondling him.

"He won't want washin' for some time to come," observed one of the
bystanders.

There was a laugh at this.

"Come; now the dog is safe you have no reason for refusing to go with
me," said the elderly gentleman, who, I now understood, was the master
of the burning house.

As we walked away he asked my name and profession, and I thought he
smiled with peculiar satisfaction when I said I was a student of
medicine.

"Oh, indeed!" he said; "well--we shall see. But here we are. This is
the house of my good friend Dobson. City man--capital fellow, like all
City men--ahem! He has put his house at my disposal at this very trying
period of my existence."

"But are you sure, Dr McTougall, that _all_ the household is saved?" I
asked, becoming more thoroughly awake to the tremendous reality of the
scene through which I had just passed.

"Sure! my good fellow, d'you think I'd be talking thus quietly to you if
I were _not_ sure? Yes, thanks to you and the firemen, under God,
there's not a hair of their heads injured."

"Are you--I beg pardon--are you quite sure? Have you seen Miss
McTougall since she--"

"Miss McTougall!" exclaimed the doctor, with a laugh. "D'you mean my
little Jenny by that dignified title?"

"Well, of course, I did not know her name, and she is not _very_ large;
but I brought her down the shoot with such violence that--"

An explosion of laughter from the doctor stopped me as I entered a large
library, the powerful lights of which at first dazzled me.

"Here, Dobson, let me introduce you to the man who has saved my whole
family, and who has mistaken Miss Blythe for my Jenny!--Why, sir," he
continued, turning to me, "the bundle you brought down so
unceremoniously is only my governess. Ah! I'd give twenty thousand
pounds down on the spot if she were only my daughter. My Jenny will be
a lucky woman if she grows up to be like her."

"I congratulate you, Mr Mellon," said the