And she gave her a hug, and a shake, and half-a-dozen kisses on each cheek, and laughed merrily, and scolded and kissed her again.

Little more than an hour after, up comes a little billet from the good-natured Magnolia, just to help poor little Sally Nutter out of the vapours, and vowing that no excuse should stand good, and that come she must to tea and cards.  ‘And, oh! what do you think?’ it went on.  ’Such a bit a newse, I’m going to tell you, so prepare for a chock;’ at this part poor Sally felt quite sick, but went on.  ’Doctor Sturk, that droav into town Yesterday, as grand as you Please, in Mrs. Strafford’s coach, all smiles and Polightness—­whood a bleeved!  Well He’s just come back, with two great Fractions of his skull, riding on a Bear, insensible into The town—­there’s for you.  Only Think of poor Mrs. Sturk, and the Chock she’s got on sight of Him:  and how thankful and Pleasant you should be that Charles Nutter is not a Corpes in the Buchar’s wood, and jiggin Home to you like Sturk did.  But well in health, what I’m certain shure he is, taken the law of Mary Matchwell—­bless the Mark—­to get her emprisind and Publickly wiped by the commin hangman.’  All which rhapsody conjured up a confused and dyspeptic dream, full of absurd and terrific images, which she could not well comprehend, except in so far as it seemed clear that some signal disaster had befallen Sturk.

That night, at nine o’clock, the great Doctor Pell arrived in his coach, with steaming horses, at Sturk’s hall-door, where the footman thundered a tattoo that might have roused the dead; for it was the family’s business, if they did not want a noise, to muffle the knocker.  And the doctor strode up, directed by the whispering awestruck maid, to Sturk’s bed-chamber, with his hands in his muff, after the manner of doctors in his day, without asking questions, or hesitating on lobbies, for the sands of his minutes ran out in gold-dust.  So, with a sort of awe and suppressed bustle preceding and following him, he glided up stairs and straight to the patient’s bedside, serene, saturnine, and rapid.

In a twinkling the maid was running down the street for Toole, who had kept at home, in state costume, expecting the consultation with the great man, which he liked.  And up came Toole, with his brows knit, and his chin high, marching over the pavement in a mighty fuss, for he knew that the oracle’s time and temper were not to be trifled with.

In the club, Larry the drawer, as he set a pint of mulled claret by old Arthur Slowe’s elbow, whispered something in his ear, with a solemn wink.

’Ho!—­by Jove, gentlemen, the doctor’s come—­Doctor Pell.  His coach stands at Sturk’s door, Larry says, and we’ll soon hear how he fares.’  And up got Major O’Neill with a ‘hey! ho—­ho!’ and out he went, followed by old Slowe, with his little tankard in his fist, to the inn-door, where the major looked on the carriage, lighted up by the footman’s flambeau, beneath the old village elm—­up the street—­smoking his pipe still to keep it burning, and communicating with Slowe, two words at a time.  And Slowe stood gazing at the same object with his little faded blue eyes, his disengaged hand in his breeches’ pocket, and ever and anon wetting his lips with his hot cordial, and assenting agreeably to the major’s conclusions.