d the bag again, and
opening his closet, placed it on one of the upper shelves, where it must
rest for a while and gather dust.

When Dr Prosser had finished reading his letters, and had answered such
as needed an immediate reply, he betook himself to the drawing-room.
This was a large apartment, occupying upstairs the same area as the
library, hall, and dining-room. It was handsomely furnished, bearing
marks in every direction of a highly cultivated taste and of woman's
handiwork. Yet there was wanting that peculiar air of comfort which
gives a heart--cheering glow alike to the humblest cottage parlour and
the elegant saloon of the man of wealth and refinement. Indeed, it
might truly be said that the room abounded in everything that could be
devised, _but_ comfort. Like a picture full of brilliant colouring, the
various hues of which need blending and toning down, so the articles of
luxury and beauty lavishly scattered about Dr Prosser's drawing-room,
though tastefully selected, seemed calculated rather to call forth the
passing admiration of friends and strangers than to give abiding
pleasure to their possessors.

At present there was certainly something very discouraging about the
whole appearance of things in the eyes of the doctor, as he entered the
costly furnished apartment. A fire, it is true, twinkled between the
bars of the grate; but its few feeble sparks, in contrast with the
prevailing surroundings of black coal and cinders, were suggestive to
the feelings rather of the chilliness they were meant to counteract than
of the warmth which they were designed to impart. Near the fire was a
dwarf, round, three-legged table, on which lay a manuscript in a female
hand. The doctor took it up, and laid it down with a sigh. It was a
portion of a long-since-begun and never-likely-to-be-finished essay on
comparative anatomy. A heap of unanswered letters lay on a taller table
close by, having displaced a work-basket, whose appearance of
superlative neatness showed how seldom the fingers of its gentle owner
explored or made use of its homely stores. A grand piano stood near the
richly curtained windows. It was open. A vocal duet occupied the
music-rest, and various other pieces for voice and instrument were
strewed along the highly polished top. Near the piano was a harp, while
a manuscript book of German and Italian songs was placed upon an elegant
stand near it, and other pieces filled a gaping portfolio at