nd itself, he informed her that the bullet had "traversed
the deltoid, but without dividing the brachial artery; and, for the
present, sympathetic fever and subcutaneous inflammation would be the
worst consequences." These tidings were neither very reassuring nor
intelligible; but all her cross-examination could elicit little better.

"Has Colonel Haggerstone been to see him?" asked she.

"No, madam. His groom called with a present of two florins."

"Oh! impossible, sir."

"Perfectly true, madam. I was present when the money was returned to the
man by a young lady, whose attentions to the sufferer saved him the pain
this indignity would have cost him."

"A young lady, did you say? How does he happen to be so fortunate in his
attendance?"

"Her father chances to be this poor creature's tenant, and many mutual
acts of kindness have passed between them."

"Not even scandal could asperse her motives in the present case," said
Lady Hester, with an insolent laugh. "It looked hardly human when they
lifted it from the ground."

"Scandal has been guilty of as gross things, madam," said Grounsell,
sternly, "but I would defy her here, although there is beauty enough
to excite all her malevolence." And with this speech, delivered with a
pointedness there was no mistaking, the doctor left the room.

Impressions, or what she herself would have called "feelings," chased
each other so rapidly through Lady Hester's mind, that her whole
attention was now directed to the young lady of whom Grounsell spoke,
and whose singular charity excited all her curiosity. There is a strange
tendency to imitation among those whose intelligences lie unexercised
by any call of duty or necessity. No suggestion coming from within, they
look without themselves for occupation and amusement. Lady Hester was a
prominent disciple of this school; all her life she had been following,
eager to see whether the fashions that became, or the pleasures that
beguiled, others, might not suit herself. If such a course of existence
inevitably conduces to ennui and discontent, it is no less difficult to
strive against; and they who follow in the track of others' footsteps
have all the weariness of the road without the cheering excitement of
the journey.

If the young lady found pleasure in charity, why should n't she?
Benevolence, too, for aught she knew, might be very becoming. There were
a hundred little devices of costume and manner which might be adopted to