esolate
brother.

"Very hard to guide;--was he not, my lord?"

"The very devil. Now, you see, I do do what I'm told pretty
well,--don't I, doctor?"

"Sometimes."

"By George, I do nearly always. I don't know what you mean by
sometimes. I've been drinking brandy-and-water till I'm sick of it,
to oblige you, and you tell me about--sometimes. You doctors expect
a man to be a slave. Haven't I kept it out of my stomach?"

"Thank God, yes."

"It's all very well thanking God, but I should have gone as poor Jack
has gone, if I hadn't been the most careful man in the world. He was
drinking champagne ten days ago;--would do it, you know." Lord Tulla
could talk about himself and his own ailments by the hour together,
and Dr. Finn, who had thought that his noble patient was approaching
the subject of the borough, was beginning again to feel that the
double interest of the gout that was present, and the gout that had
passed away, would be too absorbing. He, however, could say but
little to direct the conversation.

"Mr. Morris, you see, lived more in London than you do, and was
subject to temptation."

"I don't know what you call temptation. Haven't I the temptation of a
bottle of wine under my nose every day of my life?"

"No doubt you have."

"And I don't drink it. I hardly ever take above a glass or two of
brown sherry. By George! when I think of it, I wonder at my own
courage. I do, indeed."

"But a man in London, my lord--"

"Why the deuce would he go to London? By-the-bye, what am I to do
about the borough now?"

"Let my son stand for it, if you will, my lord."

"They've clean swept away Brentford's seat at Loughton, haven't they?
Ha, ha, ha! What a nice game for him,--to have been forced to help to
do it himself! There's nobody on earth I pity so much as a radical
peer who is obliged to work like a nigger with a spade to shovel away
the ground from under his own feet. As for me, I don't care who sits
for Loughshane. I did care for poor Jack while he was alive. I don't
think I shall interfere any longer. I am glad it lasted Jack's time."
Lord Tulla had probably already forgotten that he himself had thrown
Jack over for the last session but one.

"Phineas, my lord," began the father, "is now Under-Secretary of
State."

"Oh, I've no doubt he's a very fine fellow;--but you see, he's an
out-and-out Radical."

"No, my lord."

"Then how can he serve with such men as Mr. Gresham and Mr. Monk?
They've turne