fferer's
use, when she very ingenuously informed me it was not at the moment
necessary, that person herself having always, in the payment of her
weekly rent, entrusted to her hands money sufficient to supply the
wants of several ensuing days.

"An' though we're sometimes bad enough off, sir, when the boys don't
get the work at Mr Cubitt's, still, shure, if I was to wrong a poor
sickly crethur like that of her thrifle of change, 'twould melt away
the weight o' myself in goold if I had it."

I could not help smiling at this unwonted display of honesty in so
unexpected a quarter, and promising her that such care and attention
to her sick tenant should not go unrewarded, I departed, escorted by
"Micky," who had returned to say that no intelligence of the 'seer was
to be obtained at Tim Reilly's. On making our way into Holborn, I
called at the nearest surgeon's, and, giving him my address, I
dispatched him back with the boy, directing him, at the same time, not
to allow the woman to be removed unless her disorder was a contagious
one, (which, I was persuaded, it was not,) and requesting, should the
aid of a physician be necessary, he would at once procure it, for
which, with all other expenses, I would be answerable. Touching this
latter point, the lad had informed me as we came along, that he did
not think their lodger was at all at a loss for money, as she procured
it about once a-month, he thought, (the only time she ever went
abroad,) from some "gentleman's office in the coorts."

Although living at such a distance, I contrived to see the unfortunate
invalid several times in the following week. I found I was right as to
the nature of her disorder. An eminent physician had been called in
once or twice during its most violent paroxysms, and stated, that it
was likely her malady was not the cause, but the consequence, of some
extraordinary mental excitement. Under the judicious treatment he
pointed out, the fever gradually subsided, and for a short time there
was an appearance in the patient of returning convalescence. But her
physical energies were exhausted, and it was evident that a very short
period would terminate her existence. Reason, too, never wholly
resumed its functions, if indeed it had ever of late years exercised
them in that wearied brain. Her ideas assumed a certain degree of
coherency. She was able to converse occasionally with calmness, to
recognise faces familiar to her, and appeared sensible of and ev