Again it invited me, sometimes to dinner, often to tea; and again Miss Brabazon assured me by a sidelong glance that it was no fault of hers if I were still single.
I had almost forgotten the dispute which had obtained for me so conspicuous a triumph, when one winter's night I was roused from sleep by a summons to attend Dr Lloyd, who, attacked by a second stroke a few hours previously, had, on recovering sense, expressed a vehement desire to consult the rival by whom he had suffered so severely.

I dressed myself in haste and hurried to his house.
A February night, sharp and bitter; an iron-gray frost below, a spectral melancholy moon above.

I had to ascend the Abbey Hill by a steep, blind lane between high walls.

I passed through stately gates, which stood wide open, into the garden ground that surrounded the old Abbots' House.

At the end of a short carriage-drive the dark and gloomy building cleared itself from leafless skeleton trees,--the moon resting keen and cold on its abrupt gables and lofty chimney-stacks.