What education she got was at her own hand--what reading she read was in a library full of old romances--what friends or company she had was what chance sent her--then no family-physician, not even a good surgeon, within ten miles! And so you cannot wonder if the poor thing became unsettled." "Puir thing!--no doctor!--nor even a surgeon!--But, Doctor," said the widow, "maybe the puir thing had the enjoyment of her health, ye ken, and, then"---- "Ah! ha, ha!--why _then_, madam, she needed a physician far more than if she had been delicate.

A skilful physician, Mrs.Blower, knows how to bring down that robust health, which is a very alarming state of the frame when it is considered _secundum artem_.

Most sudden deaths happen when people are in a robust state of health.

Ah! that state of perfect health is what the doctor dreads most on behalf of his patient." "Ay, ay, Doctor ?--I am quite sensible, nae doubt," said the widow, "of the great advantage of having a skeelfu' person about ane." Here the Doctor's voice, in his earnestness to convince Mrs.Blower of the danger of supposing herself capable of living and breathing without a medical man's permission, sunk into a soft pleading tone, of which our reporter could not catch the sound.

He was, as great orators will sometimes be, "inaudible in the gallery." Meanwhile, Lady Penelope overwhelmed Clara Mowbray with her caresses.