"Well, well, I dare say it can be managed," said the doctor, "and especially if you have no objection to have the coachman's boy in the house; there will be a difficulty with the father else, perhaps; its mother seemed to depend upon Mrs. Hollis taking care of it somehow."

"Did she? well, I like that. Have I been so very considerate about my own immediate descendants, then, that you think it's likely I am going to take up with one of my drunken coachman's?"

"Mr. Hollis," urged Sir Toby, quietly, “it is perfectly indifferent to me whether you treat the brat as one of your own family, or cause him to be comfortably brought up for a year or two at home; my professional duty is simply to warn you that the two disappointments of having to wean her child, and of being forbidden to fulfil the dying request of her favourite servant, will have an effect upon Mrs. Hollis's health for which I will not be answerable. She is very sentimental, not to say foolish, about such matters; and as for your reasoning with her" (seeing Mr. Hollis about to stride up-stairs with an expression of ultra-marital authority), "you'll kill her, sir, in the state in which she now is, in ten minutes. Now let me go, my friend, -let me go, and I will make the best terms I can for you."

"Well, go then," muttered the happy father,

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go;" adding, as the door closed upon the unconscious knight, a very extreme limit for his destination.

Mrs. Hollis, as her doctor had expected, was a good deal thrown back in her prospects of recovery by the news of poor Sarah's death; she had been her waiting-maid for years in the old happy days, -her trustworthy confidante and humble sympathiser; and her mistress felt that from among the brilliant crowd in which she had begun to move, she could have borne to have missed any face rather than that homely one at home, which knew how to weep with her as well as to smile. She had regretted the girl's attachment to Birt the coachman (who, although a good fellow in the main, was addicted over-much to beer), and had striven, as much as her kind nature would permit her, to prevent it; thereby unconsciously repaying Sarah's as fruitless efforts to induce her young mistress not to dispose of herself to her present honourable possessor. The lady had certainly made a worse bargain than the servant, and, what was still sadder, she had by this time got to know it.

People of fashion rarely, although sometimes, chastise their wives as the democracy do; but they speak broomsticks, although they may use none. Some pale-faced women there are, ay peeresses, who, venturing to remove their masks a breathing space,

disclose to observant eyes such heel-marks on their brows as are far worse than knife-stabs or outward bruises. What depths of degradation, what trodden-out jealousies, what shuddering fears, are to be read sometimes upon unruffled coroneted brows! What awful looks are sometimes to be seen sweeping over noble faces, dead to malice one would have hoped, since dead to feeling, when the wife speaks a truth unwelcome, or interrupts the long-drawn solemn drawl of her liege lord! We, for our parts, would rather be the anticipative Betsey already black-eyed Betsey—when her lord and master, her lover and cherisher, remarks with meaning, "You would, would you? wait till I get you home"-than any one of these.

Sir Toby Ruffles was not a wise man by any means, but he was a very keen observer, and he knew precisely the state of domestic relation which existed between Mr. and Mrs. Hollis. This was what he said when he arrived in his patient's room after his late interview with her husband :

:

"We are certainly not so well this morning, my dear madam, are we? We are flushed-we are excited-we have rather red eyes, I am afraid, again."

If Sir Toby was speaking editorially, and of himself, we certainly had; but he was accustomed to put his patients into the first person plural, and he

referred to Mrs. Hollis's organs of vision, and not his own. "Now, my dear good lady, we must stop this; you will do harm, positive harm, to the little darling here."

The flush vanished away from her cheek as the sunlight vanishes before the wind-swept April clouds, and her heart misgave her that some still heavier ones than had as yet overshadowed her young life were labouring up. "Suppose, now, for a little while he leaves you, for both your sakes?"

"Oh no, oh no, dear doctor! no, for the love of God: you don't know what this is to me, this blessed gift. I will do all tell me, I will be cheerful, strong; but this is my only comfort,

my

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you

Why, the fact is, my very dear madam," said Sir Toby, resolving to bring up his reserve at once, since the resistance was likely to be so violent,

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your good husband begged me"-the fragile form which in its passionate excitement had risen from the pillow, dropped back at once-" to insist on this for your own health's sake; he is so anxious, naturally anxious, for your swift recovery. You will see the dear child always, every day, except perhaps just at first, to accustom you to its absence. We shall have a capital nurse, ay and a playfellow too, for the little lord, (as he will be by and by, I

hope,) in the very house. I told Mr. Hollis of poor Sarah Birt's last wish, that you should have the care of her child, and he consented to its coming here at once. Nothing,' he said, 'would give him a greater pleasure, since he knew that it would please you.' A sickly smile lit up the young wife's features for an instant in thankfulness to the speaker for his well-meaning lie; a month or two ago, perhaps, it would have kindled hope's dying embers, and shed a real radiance on her face; but the time for that was passed. "God's will be done," she murmured; and presently, "What message did poor Sarah send to me?"

"Oh, poor thing, her humble duty to you, and she hoped that her child, being born at the same time with yours, would give you an additional interest in it; something of that sort, and then she began to wander, saying you were to do it for the mistletoe's sake, and Christmas time.”

"Mistletoe, Doctor! are you sure?"

"Yes, quite, unless, however, it was elder-berries; and now, if you will allow me, by the bye, I will go and see after your little charge, and the nurse whom I hope to get for his lordship here. How pleased Mr. Hollis will be to hear that you have borne up so admirably. By bye, Baby Beautiful ;why, it is growing like its mother already, I do declare!"