The doctor's estimate, even of a confiding patient, was apt to rise and fall with the entries in the day-book; and I have known Mr.
Pilgrim discover the most unexpected virtues in a patient seized with a promising illness.

At such times you might have been glad to perceive that there were some of Mr.Pilgrim's fellow-creatures of whom he entertained a high opinion, and that he was liable to the amiable weakness of a too admiring estimate.

A good inflammation fired his enthusiasm, and a lingering dropsy dissolved him into charity.

Doubtless this _crescendo_ of benevolence was partly due to feelings not at all represented by the entries in the day-book; for in Mr.Pilgrim's heart, too, there was a latent store of tenderness and pity which flowed forth at the sight of suffering.

Gradually, however, as his patients became convalescent, his view of their characters became more dispassionate; when they could relish mutton-chops, he began to admit that they had foibles, and by the time they had swallowed their last dose of tonic, he was alive to their most inexcusable faults.