in the
morning; to which he replied that, on the contrary, if he was to pass
the next days in the fidgets, my company would be an extreme relief to
him. The fidgets had already begun for him, poor fellow; and as we
sat in his study with our cigars after dinner, he wandered to the door
whenever he heard the sound of the doctor's wheels. Miss Ambient, who
shared this apartment with us, gave me at such moments significant
glances; she had gone upstairs before rejoining us to ask after the
child His mother and his nurse gave a tolerable account of him; but Miss
Ambient found his fever high and his symptoms very grave. The doctor
came at ten o'clock, and I went to bed after hearing from Mark that
he saw no present cause for alarm. He had made every provision for the
night, and was to return early in the morning.

I quitted my room at eight o'clock the next day, and, as I came
downstairs, saw, through the open door of the house, Mrs. Ambient
standing at the front gate of the grounds, in colloquy with the
physician. She wore a white dressing-gown, but her shining hair was
carefully tucked away in its net, and in the freshness of the morning,
after a night of watching, she looked as much "the type of the lady" as
her sister-in-law had described her. Her appearance, I suppose, ought to
have reassured me; but I was still nervous and uneasy, so that I shrank
from meeting her with the necessary question about Dolcino. None the
less, however, was I impatient to learn how the morning found him;
and, as Mrs. Ambient had not seen me, I passed into the grounds by a
roundabout way, and, stopping at a further gate, hailed the doctor just
as he was driving away. Mrs. Ambient had returned to the house before he
got into his gig.

"Excuse me, but as a friend of the family, I should like very much to
hear about the little boy."

The doctor, who was a stout, sharp man, looked at me from head to foot,
and then he said, "I'm sorry to say I have n't seen him."

"Have n't seen him?"

"Mrs. Ambient came down to meet me as I alighted, and told me that he
was sleeping so soundly, after a restless night, that she did n't wish
him disturbed. I assured her I would n't disturb him, but she said he
was quite safe now and she could look after him herself."

"Thank you very much. Are you coming back?"

"No, sir; I 'll be hanged if I come back!" exclaimed Dr. Allingham, who
was evidently very angry. And he started his horse again with the whip.

I