said the professor rather dreamily, as he sat down beside the
patient. "I suppose he knows best. I did not know you were so ill, my
boy."

"I'm not ill, sir."

"But they say you are, my lad. I was going abroad; but I heard that you
were not so well, and--and I came up."

"I am very glad," said the lad, "for it is very dull lying here. Old
Dunny is very good to me, only she will bother me so to take more
medicine, and things that she says will do me good, and I do get so
tired of everything. How is the book getting on, sir?"

"Oh, very slowly, my lad," said the professor, with more animation. "I
was going abroad to travel and study the places about which I am
writing, but--"

"When do you go?" cried the lad eagerly.

"I was going within a few days, but--"

"Whereto?"

"Smyrna first, and then to the south coast of Asia Minor, and from
thence up into the mountains."

"Is it a beautiful country, Mr Preston?"

"Yes; a very wild and lovely country, I believe."

"With mountains and valleys and flowers?"

"Oh, yes, a glorious place."

"And when are you going?"

"I was going within a few days, my boy," said the professor kindly;
"but--"

"Is it warm and sunshiny there, sir?"

"Very."

"In winter?"

"Oh, yes, in the valleys; in the mountains there is eternal snow."

"But it is warm in the winter?"

"Oh, yes; the climate is glorious, my lad."

"And here, before long, the leaves will fall from that plane-tree in the
corner of the square, that one whose top you can just see; and it will
get colder, and the nights long, and the gas always burning in the
lamps, and shining dimly through the blinds; and then the fog will fill
the streets, and creep in through the cracks of the window; and the
blacks will fall and come in upon my book, and it will be so bitterly
cold, and that dreadful cough will begin again. Oh, dear!"

There was silence in the room as the lad finished with a weary sigh; and
though it was a bright morning in September, each of the elder
personages seemed to conjure up the scenes the invalid portrayed, and
thought of him lying back there in the desolate London winter, miserable
in spirit, and ill at ease from his complaint.

Then three of the four present started, for the lawyer blew a challenge
on his trumpet.

"There is no better climate anywhere, sir," he said, addressing the
professor, "and no more healthy spot than London."

"Bless the man!" ejaculated Mrs Dunn.

"I beg t