ave all watched
after him! what an emotion the thrill of his carriage-wheels in the
street, and at length at the door, has made us feel! how we hang upon
his words, and what a comfort we get from a smile or two, if he can
vouchsafe that sunshine to lighten our darkness! Who hasn't seen the
mother prying into his face, to know if there is hope for the sick
infant that cannot speak, and that lies yonder, its little frame
battling with fever? Ah how she looks into his eyes! What thanks if
there is light there; what grief and pain if he casts them down, and
dares not say "hope!" Or it is the house-father who is stricken. The
terrified wife looks on, while the Physician feels his patient's wrist,
smothering her agonies, as the children have been called upon to stay
their plays and their talk. Over the patient in the fever, the wife
expectant, the children unconscious, the Doctor stands as if he were
Fate, the dispenser of life and death: he must let the patient off this
time: the woman prays so for his respite! One can fancy how awful the
responsibility must be to a conscientious man: how cruel the feeling
that he has given the wrong remedy, or that it might have been possible
to do better: how harassing the sympathy with survivors, if the case is
unfortunate--how immense the delight of victory!

Having passed through a hasty ceremony of introduction to the
new-comers, of whose arrival he had been made aware by the heartbroken
little nurse in waiting without, the Doctor proceeded to examine the
patient, about whose condition of high fever there could be no
mistake, and on whom he thought it necessary to exercise the strongest
antiphlogistic remedies in his power. He consoled the unfortunate mother
as best he might; and giving her the most comfortable assurances on
which he could venture, that there was no reason to despair yet, that
everything might still be hoped from his youth, the strength of his
constitution, and so forth; and having done his utmost to allay the
horrors of the alarmed matron, he took the elder Pendennis aside into
the vacant room (Warrington's bedroom), for the purpose of holding a
little consultation.

The case was very critical. The fever, if not stopped, might and would
carry off the young fellow: he must be bled forthwith: the mother must
be informed of this necessity. Why was that other young lady brought
with her? She was out of place in a sick-room.

"And there was another woman still, be hange