he reluctance he now felt to become
Mr. Hawbury's guest. As matters stood, however, there was no alternative
but to go; for, with Allan's constitutional imprudence, there was no
safely trusting him alone anywhere, and more especially in a stranger's
house. Mr. Brock would certainly not have left his pupil to visit
the doctor alone; and Midwinter was still nervously conscious that he
occupied Mr. Brock's place.

"What shall we do till it's time to go?" asked Allan, looking about
him. "Anything in this?" he added, observing the fallen newspaper, and
picking it up from the floor.

"I'm too tired to look. If you find anything interesting, read it out,"
said Midwinter, thinking that the reading might help to keep him awake.

Part of the newspaper, and no small part of it, was devoted to extracts
from books recently published in London. One of the works most largely
laid under contribution in this manner was of the sort to interest
Allan: it was a highly spiced narrative of Traveling Adventures in
the wilds of Australia. Pouncing on an extract which described the
sufferings of the traveling-party, lost in a trackless wilderness,
and in danger of dying by thirst, Allan announced that he had found
something to make his friend's flesh creep, and began eagerly to read
the passage aloud.

Resolute not to sleep, Midwinter followed the progress of the adventure,
sentence by sentence, without missing a word. The consultation of the
lost travelers, with death by thirst staring them in the face; the
resolution to press on while their strength lasted; the fall of a heavy
shower, the vain efforts made to catch the rainwater, the transient
relief experienced by sucking their wet clothes; the sufferings renewed
a few hours after; the night advance of the strongest of the party,
leaving the weakest behind; the following a flight of birds when morning
dawned; the discovery by the lost men of the broad pool of water that
saved their lives--all this Midwinter's fast-failing attention mastered
painfully, Allan's voice growing fainter and fainter on his ear with
every sentence that was read. Soon the next words seemed to drop away
gently, and nothing but the slowly sinking sound of the voice was left.
Then the light in the room darkened gradually, the sound dwindled
into delicious silence, and the last waking impressions of the weary
Midwinter came peacefully to an end.

The next event of which he was conscious was a sharp ringing at the
c