the worst!'

'Where are Sir Ratcliffe and Lady Armine?'

'At Bath.'

'They must be sent for instantly.'

'Is there any hope?'

'There is hope; that is all. I shall now bleed him copiously, and then
blister; but I can do little. We must trust to nature. I am afraid of
the brain. I cannot account for his state by his getting wet or his
rapid travelling. Has he anything on his mind?'

'Much,' said Glastonbury.

The physician shook his head.

'It is a precious life!' said Glastonbury, seizing his arm. 'My dear
doctor, you must not leave us.'

They returned to the bedchamber.

'Captain Armine,' said the physician, taking his hand and seating
himself on the bed, 'you have a bad cold and some fever; I think you
should lose a little blood.'

'Can I leave Armine to-day, if I am bled?' enquired Ferdinand, eagerly,
'for go I must!'

'I would not move to-day,' said the physician.

'I must, indeed I must. Mr. Glastonbury will tell you I must.'

'If you set off early to-morrow you will get over as much ground in
four-and-twenty hours as if you went this evening,' said the physician,
fixing the bandage on the arm as he spoke, and nodding to Mr.
Glastonbury to prepare the basin.

'To-morrow morning?' said Ferdinand.

'Yes, to-morrow,' said the physician, opening his lancet.

'Are you sure that I shall be able to set off tomorrow?' said Ferdinand.

'Quite,' said the physician, opening the vein.

The dark blood flowed sullenly; the physician exchanged an anxious
glance with Glastonbury; at length the arm was bandaged up, a composing
draught, with which the physician had been prepared, given to his
patient, and the doctor and Glastonbury withdrew. The former now left
Armine for three hours, and Glastonbury prepared himself for his painful
office of communicating to the parents the imminent danger of their only
child.

Never had a more difficult task devolved upon an individual than that
which now fell to the lot of the good Glastonbury, in conducting the
affairs of a family labouring under such remarkable misconceptions as to
the position and views of its various members. It immediately occurred
to him, that it was highly probable that Miss Grandison, at such a
crisis, would choose to accompany the parents of her intended husband.
What incident, under the present circumstances, could be more awkward
and more painful? Yet how to prevent its occurrence? How crude to
communicate the real state of such affairs at a