was just leaving his present
parish, this ended in Mr. Crosse begging him to remain permanently, not
much to Harold's gratification; but the two brothers were all left of
their family, and, different as their opinions were, they were all in
all to each other.

The agreement with Mr. Crosse would hardly have been made, had the
brothers known all that was coming. George Yolland was in a strange
stupefied state for the first day or two, owing, it was thought, to the
effects of the gas; but he revived into the irritable state of
crankiness which could not submit in prudent patience to Dr. Kingston's
dicta, but argued, and insisted on his own treatment of himself, and
his own theory of the accident, till he as good as told the doctor that
he was an old woman. Whether it were in consequence or not, I don't
know, but as soon as Dr. Kingston could persuade himself that a shock
would do no harm, he wrote a polite letter explaining that the
unfortunate occurrence from which Mr. Yolland was suffering had so
destroyed the confidence of his patients, that he felt it due to them
to take steps to dissolve the partnership.

Perhaps it was no wonder. Such things were told and believed, that
those who had never yet been attended by George Yolland believed him a
wild and destructive theorist. Miss Avice Stympson asked Miss Woolmer
how she could sleep in her bed when she knew he was in the town, and
the most astonishing stories of his practice were current, of which I
think the mildest was, that he had pulled out all a poor girl's teeth
for the sake of selling them to a London dentist, and that, when in a
state of intoxication, he had cut off a man's hand, because he had a
splinter in his finger.

However, the effect was, that Harold summoned a special meeting of the
shareholders, the same being nearly identical with the Directors of the
Hydriot Company, and these contrived to get George Yolland, Esquire,
appointed chemist and manager of the works, with a salary of 70 pounds
per annum, to be increased by a percentage on the sales! Crabbe
objected vehemently, but was in the minority. The greater number were
thoroughly believers in the discovery made on that unlucky night, or
else were led away by that force of Harold's, which was almost as
irresistible by mind, as by matter. But the tidings were received with
horror by the town. Three nervous old ladies who lived near the Lerne
gave notice to quit, and many declared that it was a