d, and pay all the
damage myself."

This was another proposition to which the doctor could not consent;
but he was utterly unable to refrain from laughing. There was an
earnest look of entreaty about Sir Roger's face as he made the
suggestion; and, joined to this, there was a gleam of comic
satisfaction in his eye which seemed to promise, that if he received
the least encouragement he would put his threat into execution. Now
our doctor was not inclined to taking any steps towards subjecting
his learned brother to pump discipline; but he could not but admit to
himself that the idea was not a bad one.

"I'll have it done, I will, by heavens! if you'll only say the word,"
protested Sir Roger.

But the doctor did not say the word, and so the idea was passed off.

"You shouldn't be so testy with a man when he is ill," said
Scatcherd, still holding the doctor's hand, of which he had again got
possession; "specially not an old friend; and specially again when
you're been a-blowing of him up."

It was not worth the doctor's while to aver that the testiness
had all been on the other side, and that he had never lost his
good-humour; so he merely smiled, and asked Sir Roger if he could do
anything further for him.

"Indeed you can, doctor; and that's why I sent for you,--why I sent
for you yesterday. Get out of the room, Winterbones," he then said,
gruffly, as though he were dismissing from his chamber a dirty
dog. Winterbones, not a whit offended, again hid his cup under his
coat-tail and vanished.

"Sit down, Thorne, sit down," said the contractor, speaking quite in
a different manner from any that he had yet assumed. "I know you're
in a hurry, but you must give me half an hour. I may be dead before
you can give me another; who knows?"

The doctor of course declared that he hoped to have many a
half-hour's chat with him for many a year to come.

"Well, that's as may be. You must stop now, at any rate. You can make
the cob pay for it, you know."

The doctor took a chair and sat down. Thus entreated to stop, he had
hardly any alternative but to do so.

"It wasn't because I'm ill that I sent for you, or rather let her
ladyship send for you. Lord bless you, Thorne; do you think I don't
know what it is that makes me like this? When I see that poor wretch,
Winterbones, killing himself with gin, do you think I don't know
what's coming to myself as well as him?

"Why do you take it then? Why do you do it? Your life is n