‘No human nature can stand such shocks as those much longer.’

‘Winterbones,’ said the contractor, turning to his clerk, ’go down, go down, I say; but don’t be out of the way.  If you go to the public-house, by G——­ you may stay there for me.  When I take a drop,—­that is if I ever do, it does not stand in the way of work.’  So Mr Winterbones, picking up his cup again, and concealing it in some way beneath his coat flap, retreated out of the room, and the two friends were alone.

‘Scatcherd,’ said the doctor, ’you have been as near your God, as any man ever was who afterwards ate and drank in this world.’

‘Have I, now?’ said the railway here, apparently somewhat startled.

‘Indeed you have; indeed you have.’

‘And now I’m all right again?’

’All right!  How can you be all right, when you know that your limbs refuse to carry you?  All right! why the blood is still beating round you brain with a violence that would destroy any other brain but yours.’

‘Ha! ha! ha!’ laughed Scatcherd.  He was very proud of thinking himself to be differently organized from other men.  ’Ha! ha! ha!  Well and what am I to do now?’

The whole of the doctor’s prescription we will not give at length.  To some of his ordinances Sir Roger promised obedience; to others he objected violently, and to one or two he flatly refused to listen.  The great stumbling-block was this, that total abstinence from business for two weeks was enjoined; and that it was impossible, so Sir Roger said, that he should abstain for two days.

‘If you work,’ said the doctor, ’in your present state, you will certainly have recourse to the stimulus of drink; and if you drink, most assuredly will die.’

‘Stimulus!  Why do you think I can’t work without Dutch courage?’

’Scatcherd, I know that there is brandy in this room at the moment, and that you have been taking it within these two hours.’

‘You smell that fellow’s gin,’ said Scatcherd.

‘I feel the alcohol working within your veins,’ said the doctor, who still had his hand on his patient’s arm.

Sir Roger turned himself roughly in the bed so as to get away from his Mentor, and then he began to threaten in his turn.

’I’ll tell you what it is, doctor; I’ve made up my mind, and I’ll do it.  I’ll send for Fillgrave.’

‘Very well,’ said he of Greshamsbury, ’send for Fillgrave.  Your case is one in which even he can hardly go wrong.’

’You think you can hector me, and do as you like because you had me under your thumb in other days.  You’re a very good fellow, Thorne, but I ain’t sure that you are the best doctor in all England.’

’You may be sure I am not; you may take me for the worst if you will.  But while I am here as your medical adviser, I can only tell you the truth to the best of my thinking.  Now the truth is, that another bout of drinking will in all probability kill you; and any recourse to stimulus in your present condition may do so.’