Ah! amiable indeed!' Here she left off, to kiss her fan again, and shake it at the Doctor, who was looking at us in a state of placid satisfaction.

'Now I have found it.

"You may not be surprised to hear, Annie,"-- no, to be sure, knowing that he never was really strong; what did I say just now?
--"that I have undergone so much in this distant place, as to have decided to leave it at all hazards; on sick leave, if I can; on total resignation, if that is not to be obtained.

What I have endured, and do endure here, is insupportable." And but for the promptitude of that best of creatures,' said Mrs.Markleham, telegraphing the Doctor as before, and refolding the letter, 'it would be insupportable to me to think of.' Mr.Wickfield said not one word, though the old lady looked to him as if for his commentary on this intelligence; but sat severely silent, with his eyes fixed on the ground.

Long after the subject was dismissed, and other topics occupied us, he remained so; seldom raising his eyes, unless to rest them for a moment, with a thoughtful frown, upon the Doctor, or his wife, or both.
The Doctor was very fond of music.