reply expressing thanks, and then said,
nervously, "They'll all be coming over!
Such a business! The colonel says he'll
write."

"I follow ye. Absurd idea! Well, I
thought that was on your mind: so I just
took the colonel aside, who, by the way,
was going up to the office, to telegraph to
Madeary——"

Cecil started. "What an absurd,
ridiculous thing! They will worry and
persecute me. I don't want it. I tell you I
don't want it."

"Well, you won't want it. I managed
it. I thought you wouldn't like it, so I
said it plainly to Bouchier, 'This won't do,
sir,' I said; 'and as Mr. Cecil Leader's
physician I interpose. It will fret and worry
him, and throw back the cure.' I took
a determined tone, so—he turned back
again."

The young man seized his hand. "Oh,
how good of you. I shall never forget.
She, my mother-in-law, would come over,
and make such fuss and scandal. After
all, a man may be overcome with the heat,
and get a sunstroke without——"

"A sunstroke!" said the Doctor, turning
on him sharply, "Oh! no doubt. But,"
he then paused, while an indescribably
comic look came into his face, " but you
mustn't give yourself any more sunstrokes,
especially when there's no sun out, or I
won't be able to pull you through another
time."

The young man hung down his head
abashed.

"Oh, my dear fellow, it won't do. It's
been tried over and over again, and ended
disastrously for all parties. Now, see
here, I like you, and took a liking to you
the moment I saw you lying there, my
poor, poor fellow! and when they all were
shaking their heads and trying to make
out it was—well—not a sunstroke exactly.
Well, I put down old Gamgee and his
notions. I said what I think, and said it
lustily, that it was nothing but the heat
of the day, while it was only superinduced
by what, my dear fellow, we must
both put our shoulders to the wheel and
get rid of. Now, there's no use denying
it."

On this the young man hung down his
head piteously, and said he was a slave to
this habit, and that he would give the whole
world to know how to be free of it. He
was disgracing himself, he knew.

"Now, see here," the Doctor said,
confidentially; "'now you might just take me
for a monk, or for that fire-shovel, for
anything I hear when I'm professionally
visiting. I'm no more than a stock or a
stone, except when my fees are concerned.
I'm just a medical ghostly father. And
don't I know what young men are! so no
one need come trying the sanctimonious
preacher with me. But see here, between
you and me, it's another matter. You
must give up that——"

"What?" said the other, confused.

"That nipping. Oh, don't tell me—one
before breakfast, one after, one at twelve,
one at one, three, and the rest of it. A
pint a day won't do. You know I have
my duty to yourself and friends, and I
don't know what that may compel me to
do."

"Oh, I assure you——"

"Unless, mark me! unless I see some
touch of reformation. Ah! but my poor
lad, as if I can't make indulgence and
allowance. Maybe a young man doesn't
feel quite as comfortable at home as he
might be. Maybe there's a little
incompatibility. Maybe—there must be, in fact.
Hadn't I a step-mother myself, and don't I
know how it goes on?"

"Yes, she don't understand me, and she
worries me. I hate being at home; she
wishes to rule us all there."

"Ah, my dear child, don't I know?
Haven't I scores of young fellows come to
me with the same story? I know next
to nothing of your good mamma; but I
have thumbed, sir, the great volume of
human nature. If I were to show you my
copy you'd find the leaves falling out, the
back burst into pieces. Maybe, now, if
you were to want money for little debts,
which every young fellow must have,
Mrs. Leader would say you were extravagant,
and make rows with the agent? And
most naturally, my poor fellow; for women
never will understand the trouble which
young men are put to."

"Indeed, Doctor Findlater, that is just
it. Won't all the estate be mine, one day,
and why shouldn't I spend like other
young men, instead of being driven to the
Jews, and harassed out of my life with
them?"

On this the Doctor began to put
questions to his young friend, and was so
seductive in his invitations to confidence,
that he soon learned that his young friend
was at his wits' end—harassed with letters
from certain creditors in town.

"They hunt and worry me so," he said,
piteously. "And there's a man in our own