Lord Holland came to the house just in the nick of time; and over-ruling authoritatively all the difficulties raised by the Esculapius in possession of the field, insisted on at once sending his own medical attendant.

The result was the immediate administration of port wine instead of phlebotomy, and the patient's rapid recovery.
My mother was at the time far past taking any part in the discussion of the medical measures to be adopted in her case.

But I am not without a suspicion that she too, if she could have been consulted, would have sided with phlebotomy and whist, as against modern practice unrelieved by any such alleviation.

For the phlebotomist had been a constant attendant at her Friday night whist-table; and as it was she lost him, for he naturally was offended at her recovery under rival hands.
What my mother _was_ I have already said enough to show, as far as my imperfect words can show it, in divers passages of these reminiscences.

She was the happiest natured person I ever knew--happy in the intense power of enjoyment, happier still in the conscious exercise of the power of making others happy; and this continued to be the case till nearly the end.