tiles could wound my darling old lion's heart across the oceanSir, he was a man who could be keen and even severe with men: but every virtuous woman was a sacred thing to him; had he seen one, though a stranger, insulted, as we were, he would have died in her defence; he was a true American. And to think the dregs of mankind could wound him for his daughter, and so near the end of his own dear life. Oh!" She turned her head away.

"My poor girl!" said Vizard, and his own voice was broken.

When he said that, she gave him her hand, and seemed to cling to it a little; but she turned her head away from him, and cried, and even trembled a little.

But she very soon recovered herself, and said she would try to end her story. It had been long enough.

"Sir, my father had often obeyed me but now I knew I must obey him. I got testimonials I got testimonials in Edinburgh, and started South directly; in a week I was in the south of France. Oh, what a change in people's minds by mere change of place! The professors received me with winning courtesy; some hats were lifted to me in the street, with marked respect: flowers were sent to my lodgings, by gentlemen, who never once intruded on me in person. I was in a civilised land. Yet there was a disappointment for me. I inquired for Cornelia. The wretch had just gone and married a professor. feared she was up to no good, by her writing so seldom of late.

I

"I sent her a line that an old friend had returned, and had not forgotten her, nor our mutual

played the injured friend and the tyrant.

"Then she curled round me, and coaxed, and said: 'Sweetheart, I can advance your interests all the better. You shall be famous for us both. I shall be happier in your success than in my own.'

"In short, she made it very hard to hold spite; and it ended in feeble-minded embraces. Indeed she was of service to me. I had a favour to ask; I wanted leave to count my Scotch time in France.

"My view was tenable; and Cornelia, by her beauty and her popularity, gained over all the professors to it but one. He stood out.

"Well, sir, an extraordinary occurrence befriended me; no, not extraordinary-unusual.

"I lodged on a second floor. The first floor was very handsome. A young Englishman and his wife took it for a week. She was musical; a real genius. The only woman I ever heard sing without whining; for we are, by nature, the medical and unmusical sex."

66

So you said before."

"I know I did; and I mean to keep saying it till people see it. Well, the young man was taken violently and mysteriously ill; had syncope after syncope, and at last ceased to breathe.

"The wife was paralysed, and sat stupefied, and the people about feared for her reason.

"After a time they begged me to come down and talk to her. Of course I went. I found her with her head upon his knees. I sat down quietly, and looked at him. He was young and beautiful, but with a feminine beauty. His head finely shaped, with curly locks that glittered in the sun, and one golden lock lighter than the rest. His eyes and eyelashes, his oval face, his white neck, and his white hand, all beautiful. His left hand

rested on the counterpane. There was an emerald ring on one finger. He was like some beautiful flower cut down. I can see him now.

"The woman lifted her head and saw me. She had a noble face, though now distorted and wild.

"She cried, "Tell me he is not dead! tell me he is not dead!' and when I did not reply, the poor creature gave a wild cry, and her senses left her. We carried her into another room.

"Whilst the women were bringing her to, an official came to insist on the interment taking place. They are terribly expeditious in the south of France.

"This caused an altercation; and the poor lady rushed out, and finding the officer peremptory, flung her arms round the body, and said they should not be parted--she would be buried with him.

"The official was moved, but said the law was strict, and the town must conduct the funeral unless she could find the sad courage to give the necessary instructions. With this he was going out, inexorable, when all of a sudden I observed something that sent my heart into my mouth, and I cried 'Arrêtez!' so loud that everybody stared.

"I said, 'You must wait till a physician has seen him; he has moved a finger.'

"I stared at the body, and they all stared at me.

"He had moved a finger. When I first saw him his fingers were all close together; but now the little finger was quite away from the third finger, the one with the ring on.

"I felt his heart, and found a little warmth about it, but no perceptible pulse. I ordered them to take off his sheet and put on blankets, but not to touch him till I came back with a learned physician. The wife embraced me, all

VOL. CXX.-NO. DCCXXXIII.

trembling, and promised obedience. I got a fiacre and drove to Dr Brasseur, who was my hostile professor, but very able. I burst on him, and told him I had a case of catalepsy for him: it wasn't catalepsy, you know, but physicians are fond of Greek; they prefer the wrong Greek word to the right English. So I called it 'catalepsy,' and said I believed they were going to bury a live man. He shrugged his shoulders, and said that was one of the customs of the country. He would come in an hour. I told him that would not do, the man would be in his coffin; he must come directly. He smiled at my impetuosity, and yielded.

"I got him to the patient. He examined him, and said he might be alive, but feared the last spark was going out. He dared not venture on friction. We must be wary.

"Well, we tried this stimulant, and that, till at last we got a sigh out of the patient; and I shall not forget the scream of joy, at that sigh, which made the room ring, and thrilled us all.

"By-and-by I was so fortunate as to suggest letting a small stream of water fall from a height on his head and face. We managed that, and by-and-by were rewarded with

a sneeze.

"I think a sneeze must revivify the brain wonderfully, for he made rapid progress, and then we tried friction, and he got well very quick. Indeed, as he had nothing the matter with him-except being dead,

he got ridiculously well, and began paying us fulsome compliments, the doctor and me.

"So then we handed him to his joyful wife.

"They talk of crying for joy, as if it was done every day. I never saw it but once, and she was the woman. She made a curious gurgle;

2 P

but it was very pretty. I was glad to have seen it, and very proud to be the cause.

"The next day, that pair left. He was English; and so many goodnatured strangers called on him that he fled swiftly, and did not even bid me good-bye. However, I was told they both inquired for me, and were sorry I was out when they went."

"How good of them!" said Vizard, turning red.

"Oh, never mind, sir; I made use of him. I scribbled an article that very day, entitled it, 'While there's life there's hope,' and rushed with it to the editor of a journal. He took it with delight. I wrote it á la Française: picture of the dead husband, mourning wife, the impending interment; effaced myself entirely, and said the wife had refused to bury him, until Dr Brasseur, whose fame had reached her ears, had seen the body. To humour her, the doctor was applied to, and, his benevolence being equal to his science, he came: when lo a sudden surprise; the swift, unerring eye of science detected some subtle sign that had escaped the lesser luminaries. He doubted the death. He applied remedies; he exhausted the means of his art, with little avail at first, but at last a sigh was elicited, then a sneeze; and, marvellous to relate, in one hour the dead man was sitting up, not convalescent, but well. I concluded with some reflections on this most important case of suspended animation very creditable to the profession of medicine, and Dr Brasseur."

"There was a fox!"

"Well, look at my hair. What else could you expect? I said that before, too.

"My notice published, I sent it to the doctor, with my respects, but did not call on him. However, one day he met me, and greeted me with a low bow.

Mademoiselle,' said he,

'you were always a good student; but now you show the spirit of a confrère, and so gracefully, that we are all agreed we must have you for one as soon as possible.'

"I curtseyed, and felt my face red, and said I should be the proudest woman in France.

"Grand Dieu!' said he, 'I hope not; for your modesty is not the least of your charms.'

"So the way was made smooth, and I had to work hard, and in about fourteen months I was admitted to my final examination. It was a severe one; but I had some advantages. Each nation has its wisdom; and I had studied in various schools.

"Being a linguist, with a trained memory, I occasionally backed my replies with a string of French, German, English, and Italian authorities, that looked imposing.

"In short, I did pass with public applause, and cordial felicitation; they quite feted me. The old welcomed me; the young escorted me home, and flung flowers over me at my door. I reappeared in the balcony, and said a few words of gratitude to them and their noble nation. They cheered, and dispersed.

"My heart was in a glow. I turned my eyes towards New York: a

fortnight more, and my parents should greet me as an European doctress, if not a British.

"The excitement had been too great; I sank a little exhausted on the sofa. They brought me a letter. It was black-edged. I tore it open, with a scream. My father was

dead."

"I was prostrated, stupefied. I don't know what I did, or how long I sat there. But Cornelia came to congratulate me, and found me there like stone, with the letter in my hand. She packed up my clothes, and took me home with her. I made no resistance. I seemed all broken and limp, soul and body, and not a tear that day.

"Oh, sir, how small everything seems beside bereavement! My troubles, my insults, were nothing now; my triumph nothing; for I had no father left to be proud of it with me.

"I wept, with anguish, a hundred times a-day. Why had I left New York why had I not foreseen this everyday calamity, and passed every precious hour by his side I was to lose?

"Terror seized me. My mother would go next. No life of any value was safe a day. Death did not wait for disease. It killed because it chose, and to show its contempt of hearts.

"But just as I was preparing to go to Havre, they brought me a telegram. I screamed at it, and put up my hands. I said, 'No, no;' I would not read it, to be told my mother was dead. I would have her a few minutes longer. Cornelia read it, and said it was from her. I fell on it, and kissed it. The blessed telegram told she was coming home. I was to go to London, and wait for her.

"I started. Cornelia paid my fees, and put my diploma in my box. I cared for nothing now but my own flesh and blood, what was left of it, my mother.

"I reached London, and telegraphed my address to my mother, and begged her to come at once and ease my fears. I told her my

"And you preferred to starve?" "I preferred to starve," said she, steadily.

He looked at her. Her eyes faced his. He muttered something, and walked away three steps to hide unreasonable sympathy. He came back with a grand display of cheerfulness. "Your mother will be here next month," said he, "with money in both pockets. Meantime I wish you would let me have a finger in the pie; or, rather, my sister. She is warm-hearted and

"Not a bit; we are by different mothers. Hers was a Greek, and she is a beautiful dark girl."

"I admire beauty; but is she like you-in-in-disposition?" "Lord! no; very superior. Not abominably clever like you; but absurdly good. You shall judge for yourself. Oblige me with your address."

The doctress wrote her address with a resigned air, as one who had found somebody she had to obey; and, as soon as he had got it, Vizard gave her a sort of nervous shake of the hand, and seemed almost in a hurry to get away from her. But this was his way.

She would have been amazed if she had seen his change of manner the moment he got amongst his own people.

He burst in on them crying, "There-the prayers of this congregation are requested for Harrington Vizard, saddled with a virago." "Saddled with a virago!" screamed Fanny. "Saddled with aZoe, faintly.

!" sighed

"Saddled with a virago FOR LIFE!" shouted Vizard, with a loud defiance, that seemed needless, since nobody was objecting violently to his being saddled.

"Look here," said he, descending all of a sudden to a meek, injured air, which, however, did not last very long; "I was in the garden of Leicester Square, and a young lady turned faint. I observed it, and, instead of taking the hint, and cutting, I offered assistance-off my guard, as usual. She declined. I persisted; proposed a glass of wine or spirit. She declined, but at last let out she was starving."

"Oh!" cried Zoe.

"Yes, Zoe-starving. A woman more learned, more scientific, more eloquent, more offensive to a fellow's vanity, than I ever saw, or even read of a woman of genius, starving, like a genius and a ninny, with a ring on her finger worth thirty guineas. But my learned goose would not raise money on that, because it was her father's, and he is dead."

"Poor thing!" said Zoe, and her eyes glistened directly.

"It is hard, Zoe; isn't it? She is a physician-an able physician; has studied at Zurich, and at Edinburgh, and in France; and has a French diploma, but must not practise in England, because we are behind the Continent in laws and civilisation so she says, confound her impudence, and my folly for becoming a woman's echo! But if I were to tell you her whole story, your blood would boil at the trickery, and dishonesty, and oppression of the trades - union, which has driven this gifted creature to a foreign school for education, and, now that a foreign nation admits her ability and crowns her with honour, still she must not practise in this country because she is a woman and we are a nation of halfcivilised men. That is her chat, you understand, not mine. We are not obliged to swallow all that; but, turn it how you will, here are learning, genius, and virtue starving. We must get her to accept a little money; that means, in her case, a little fire and food. Zoe, shall that woman go to bed hungry to-night?"

"No; never!" said Zoe, warmly. "Let me think. Offer her a loan."

"Well done; that is a good idea. Will you undertake it? She will be far more likely to accept. She is a bit of a prude and all, is my virago."