he was
to be agreeably disappointed. Treading lightly, and looking timidly
over his shoulder, as if he apprehended a shower of something, even more
formidable than words, the Doctor proceeded to the place which had been
allotted to himself in the general disposition of the dormitories.

Instead of sleeping, the worthy naturalist sat ruminating over what he
had both seen and heard that day, until the tossing and mutterings
which proceeded from the cabin of Esther, who was his nearest neighbour,
advertised him of the wakeful situation of its inmate. Perceiving the
necessity of doing something to disarm this female Cerberus, before his
own purpose could be accomplished, the Doctor, reluctant as he was to
encounter her tongue, found himself compelled to invite a colloquial
communication.

"You appear not to sleep, my very kind and worthy Mrs. Bush," he said,
determined to commence his applications with a plaster that was usually
found to adhere; "you appear to rest badly, my excellent hostess; can I
administer to your ailings?"

"What would you give me, man?" grumbled Esther; "a blister to make me
sleep?"

"Say rather a cataplasm. But if you are in pain, here are some cordial
drops, which, taken in a glass of my own cognac, will give you rest, if
I know aught of the materia medica."

The Doctor, as he very well knew, had assailed Esther on her weak side;
and, as he doubted not of the acceptable quality of his prescription, he
sat himself at work, without unnecessary delay, to prepare it. When he
made his offering, it was received in a snappish and threatening manner,
but swallowed with a facility that sufficiently proclaimed how much it
was relished. The woman muttered her thanks, and her {leech} reseated
himself in silence, to await the operation of the dose. In less than
half an hour the breathing of Esther became so profound, and, as the
Doctor himself might have termed it, so very abstracted, that had he not
known how easy it was to ascribe this new instance of somnolency to the
powerful dose of opium with which he had garnished the brandy, he might
have seen reason to distrust his own prescription. With the sleep of the
restless woman, the stillness became profound and general.

Then Dr. Battius saw fit to arise, with the silence and caution of the
midnight robber, and to steal out of his own cabin, or rather kennel,
for it deserved no better name, towards the adjoining dormitories. Here
he took time to assure