d to my effects in a marvellous way. I made myself an
excellent mattress out of some sacking and the straw in which the
medicine bottles had been packed.

Again, out of three shutters which belonged to the room, I rigged up a
very effective side-table for my own den, which when covered with a
red cloth, and ornamented with the bears' paws, might have cost twenty
guineas for all that the patient could say to the contrary. I had done
all this with a light heart and a good spirit before the paralysing blow
which I shall have to tell you about, came upon me.

Of course it was obvious from the first that a servant was out of the
question. I could not feed one, far less pay one, and I had no kitchen
furniture. I must open my door to my own patients--let them think what
they would of it. I must clean my own plate and brush down my own front;
and these duties must be thoroughly done, come what might, for I must
show a presentable outside to the public. Well, there was no great
hardship in that, for I could do it under the cover of night. But I had
had a suggestion from my mother which simplified matters immensely. She
had written to say that if I wished she would send my little brother
Paul to keep me company. I wrote back eagerly to agree. He was a hardy
cheery little fellow of nine, who would, I knew, gladly share hard times
with me; while, if they became unduly so, I could always have him taken
home again. Some weeks must pass before he could come, but it cheered me
to think of him. Apart from his company, there were a thousand ways in
which he might be useful.

Who should come in on the second day but old Captain Whitehall? I was
in the back room, trying how many slices I could make out of a pound of
potted beef, when he rang my bell, and I only just shut my mouth in time
to prevent my heart jumping out.

How that bell clanged through the empty house! I saw who it was,
however, when I went into the hall; for the middle panels of my door are
of glazed glass, so that I can always study a silhouette of my visitors
before coming to closer quarters.

I was not quite sure yet whether I loathed the man or liked him. He was
the most extraordinary mixture of charity and drunkenness, lechery and
self-sacrifice that I had ever come across. But he brought into the
house with him a whiff of cheeriness and hope for which I could not but
be grateful. He had a large brown paper parcel under his arm, which he
unwrapped upon my table, d