se scurrilous
penny-a-liners who inveigh against a bloated and pampered aristocracy,
could just witness the daily life of labor of one of these spoiled
children of Fortune. Here is this man, doubtless reared in ease and
affluence, and see him, how he toils away, from sundown to dawn,
unravelling the schemes, tracing the wiles, and exposing the snares of
these crafty foreigners. Hark! he is muttering over the subtle sentence
he has just written: 'I am much grieved about Maria's little girl, but
I hope she will escape being marked by the malady.'" A groan that broke
from me here startled him, and he looked up.

"Ah! yes, by the way, I want you, Paynter."

"I am not Paynter, your Excellency, my name is--"

"Of course, you have your own name for your own peculiar set; but don't
interrupt. I have a special service for you, and will put it in the
'extraordinaires.' I have taken a little villa on the Lake of Como for
my sister, but, from the pressure of political events, I am not able to
accompany her there. She is a very timid traveller, and cannot possibly
go alone. You 'll take charge of her, therefore, Paynter,--there, don't
be fussy,--you 'll take charge of her and a young lady who is with her,
and you 'll see them housed and established there. I suppose she will
prefer to travel slowly, some thirty miles or so a day, post horses
always, and strictly avoiding railroads; but you can talk it over
together yourselves. There was a Bobus to have come out--"

"A Bobus!"

"I mean a doctor,--I call every doctor, Bobus,--but something has
detained him, or, indeed, I believe he was drowned; at all events, he's
not come, and you 'll have to learn how to measure out ether and drop
morphine; the 'companion' will help you. And keep an account of your
expenses, Paynter,--your own expenses for F. O.,--and don't let her fall
sick at any out-of-the-way place, which she has rather a knack of doing;
and, above all, don't telegraph on any account. Come and dine,--six."

"If you will excuse me at dinner, I shall be obliged. I have a sort of
half engagement."

"Come in about nine, then," said he, "for she'd like to talk over some
matters. Look out for a carriage, too; I don't fancy giving mine if you
can get another. One of those great roomy German things with a cabriolet
front, for Miss--I forget her name--would prefer a place outside. Kramm,
the landlord, can help you to search for one; and let it be dusted and
aired and fumigated and