“I see your meaning, Toller,” said Mr. Hackbutt, “and I am entirely of your opinion.  I shall take an opportunity of expressing myself to that effect.  A medical man should be responsible for the quality of the drugs consumed by his patients.  That is the rationale of the system of charging which has hitherto obtained; and nothing is more offensive than this ostentation of reform, where there is no real amelioration.”

“Ostentation, Hackbutt?” said Mr. Toller, ironically.  “I don’t see that.  A man can’t very well be ostentatious of what nobody believes in.  There’s no reform in the matter:  the question is, whether the profit on the drugs is paid to the medical man by the druggist or by the patient, and whether there shall be extra pay under the name of attendance.”

“Ah, to be sure; one of your damned new versions of old humbug,” said Mr. Hawley, passing the decanter to Mr. Wrench.

Mr. Wrench, generally abstemious, often drank wine rather freely at a party, getting the more irritable in consequence.

“As to humbug, Hawley,” he said, “that’s a word easy to fling about.  But what I contend against is the way medical men are fouling their own nest, and setting up a cry about the country as if a general practitioner who dispenses drugs couldn’t be a gentleman.  I throw back the imputation with scorn.  I say, the most ungentlemanly trick a man can be guilty of is to come among the members of his profession with innovations which are a libel on their time-honored procedure.  That is my opinion, and I am ready to maintain it against any one who contradicts me.”  Mr. Wrench’s voice had become exceedingly sharp.

“I can’t oblige you there, Wrench,” said Mr. Hawley, thrusting his hands into his trouser-pockets.

“My dear fellow,” said Mr. Toller, striking in pacifically! and looking at Mr. Wrench, “the physicians have their toes trodden on more than we have.  If you come to dignity it is a question for Minchin and Sprague.”

“Does medical jurisprudence provide nothing against these infringements?” said Mr. Hackbutt, with a disinterested desire to offer his lights.  “How does the law stand, eh, Hawley?”

“Nothing to be done there,” said Mr. Hawley.  “I looked into it for Sprague.  You’d only break your nose against a damned judge’s decision.”

“Pooh! no need of law,” said Mr. Toller.  “So far as practice is concerned the attempt is an absurdity.  No patient will like it—­ certainly not Peacock’s, who have been used to depletion.  Pass the wine.”

Mr. Toller’s prediction was partly verified.  If Mr. and Mrs. Mawmsey, who had no idea of employing Lydgate, were made uneasy by his supposed declaration against drugs, it was inevitable that those who called him in should watch a little anxiously to see whether he did “use all the means he might use” in the case.  Even good Mr. Powderell, who in his constant charity of interpretation was inclined