his own doses, and he's done for."

"Wouldn't ratsbane do? I often think he's a rat."

"In face and eyes he certainly looks very like one."

"Are you aware, sir, that my wife's a cripple? She's paralyzed in her
lower limbs."

"I am perfectly aware of that melancholy fact."

"Are you aware that she's jealous of me?"

"No, not that she's jealous of you now; but perfectly aware that she had
good cause to be so."

"Ay, but the devil of it is that the paralysis you speak of never
reached her tongue."

"I speak of--'twas yourself spoke of it."

"She sent me here because it happens to be a year of famine--what is
commonly called a hard season--and she stitched the little blasted
doctor to me that I might die legitimately under medical advice. Isn't
that very like murder--isn't it?"

"Ah, my dear friend, thank God that you are not a parson, having a
handsome wife and a handsome curate, with the gout to support you and
keep you comfortable. You would then feel that there are other twinges
worse than those of the gout."

"Ay, but is there anything wrong about your head?"

"Heaven knows. About a twelvemonth ago I felt as if there were two
sprouts budding out of my forehead, but on putting up my hand I
could feel nothing. It was as smooth as ever. It must have been
hypochondriasis. The curate, though, is a handsome dog, and, like
yourself, it was my wife sent me here."

"Is your wife a cripple?"

"Faith, anything but that."

"How is her tongue? No paralysis in that quarter?"

"On the contrary, she is calm and soft-spoken, and perfectly sweet and
angelic in her manner."

"But was it in consequence of the famine she sent you here? Toast and
water!--toast and water! O Lord!"

This dialogue took place in Manifold's lodgings, where Topertoe, aided
by a crutch and his servant, was in the habit of visiting him. To
Manifold, indeed, this was a penal settlement, in consequence of the
reasons which we have already stated.

The Pythagorean, as well as Topertoe, was also occasionally forced to
the use of crutches; and it was certainly a strange and remarkable thing
to witness two men, each at the extreme point of social indulgence,
and each departing from reason and common-sense, suffering from the
consequences of their respective errors; Manifold, a most voracious
fellow, knocked on the head by an attack of apoplexy, and Cooke, the
philosopher, suffering the tortures of the damned from a most violent
rheumatism, prod