“Has he been eating any thing improper?” asked Doctor L—­, after administering such remedies, and ordering such treatment as he deemed the case required.

“Has he eaten no green fruit?”

“None.”

“Nothing, to my knowledge, replied Mrs. Hobart.  “We have been very careful in regard to food.”

“Nor unripe vegetables?”

Mrs. Hobart shook her head.

“Nor fish?”

“Nothing of the kind.”

“That is strange.  He was well a few days ago.”

“Yes, perfectly, until he began to take a little brandy every day as a preventive.”

“Ah!” The doctor looked thoughtful.  “But it couldn’t have been that.  I take a little pure brandy every day, and find it good.  I recommend it to all my patients.”

Mrs. Hobart sighed.  Then she asked—­“Do you think him dangerous?”

“I hope not.  The attack is sudden and severe.  But much worse cases recover.  I will call round again before bed time.”

The doctor went away feeling far from comfortable.  Only a few hours before he, had left a man sick with cholera beyond recovery, who had, to his certain knowledge, adopted the brandy-drinking-preventive-system but a week before; and that at his recommendation.  And here was another case.

At eleven o’clock Dr. L—­called to see Mr. Hobart again, and found him rapidly sinking.  Not a single symptom had been reached by his treatment.  The poor man was in great pain.  Every muscle in his body seemed affected by cramps and spasms.  His mind, however, was perfectly clear.  As the doctor sat feeling his pulse, Hobart said to him—­

“Doctor L—­, it is too late!”

“Oh, no.  It is never too late,” replied the doctor.  “Don’t think of death; think of life, and that will help to sustain you.  You are not, by any means, at the last point.  Hundreds, worse than you now are, come safely through.  I don’t intend to let you slip through my hands.”

“Doctor,” said the sick man, speaking in a solemn voice, “I feel that I am beyond the reach of medicine.  I shall die.  What I now say I do not mean as a reproach.  I speak it only as a truth right for you to know.  Do you see my poor wife?”

The doctor turned his eyes upon Mrs. Hobart, who stood weeping by the bedside.

“When she is left a widow, and my children orphans,” continued the patient, “remember that you have made them such!”

“Me!  Why do you say that, Mr. Hobart?” The doctor looked startled.

“Because it is the truth.  I was a well man, when you, as my medical adviser, recommended me to drink brandy as a protection against disease.  I was in fear of the infection, and followed your prescription.  From the moment I took the first draught my body lost its healthy equilibrium; and not only my body, but my mind.  I was a reformed man, and the taste inflamed the old appetite.  From that time until now I have not been really sober.”