fixing her eyes upon the distorted garments of the doctor, upon his wild staring looks, and the motley stains on his plaited shirt: "Is any thing the matter, Sir?"

"The matter-no, Mrs. Twitch. Now, for God's sake open the door!" cried Dr. Welkin, whose desire for death had yielded in an instant to that of gaining fresh worldly blessings. Mrs. Twitch, however, still stood irresolute. The ghastly figure before her, so unlike the elegant medical pupil she had for so many years been wont to see, entirely absorbed all other feelings.

"Now, the patient will go away!" exclaimed the doctor, rising, and looking out at the window with anxiety. "Now, do go," said he, gently tapping Mrs. Twitch on the shoulder.

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Shall I say you're at home, Sir?" said the landlady, at length preparing to execute the order.

"At home! at home! why, to be sure!" returned the physician, "always at home!" And at that instant a third knock, accompained by an impatient ring, again saluted the ears of the whole household.

"God bless the man for waiting!" cried Welkin with intense anxiety. "God bless the woman, go, or I'll go myself! Dr. Welkin is at home, to be sure!" His extreme eagerness decided the matter. The landlady went down for the purpose of obeying the order; and so earnest was the doctor, that he could not help coming to the staircase and crying out, "Mind! I am at home, Mrs. Twitch, to any body." Satisfaction could no longer be refused to the urgent importunities of the visiter without and of the doctor within: the door was opened, and Welkin was gratified by hearing his name mentioned, and directly afterwards by the gradual approach of the guest towards his apartments.

"Mr. Ambrose Squaggs," said the landlady, introducing with hesitation a stout, Dutch-built, grave-looking, middle-aged person, whose nose betokened the regard he entertained for generous living, and whose legs seemed to labour beneath the weight they were bound to sustain. Panting for breath, Mr. Squaggs, nevertheless, advanced to meet the physician.

"Mr.-," repeated Welkin, in a state of delightful ecstasy, again desirous to hear the name pronounced. "Mr. Ambrose Squaggs, Sir," said Mrs. Twitch, as she withdrew, blessing herself at her lodger's wild and

uncouth appearance. For the unshaved and haggard professor of medicine presented an appearance which might have scared away the most confiding patient on his list.

"Mr. Squaggs," again ejaculated the doctor, rejoiced that he had mastered the strange name-"Pray be seated." Welkin handed a chair at the instant, and with so much politeness, that his spectral form, contrasted with the accomplished air he had suddenly put on, seemed to savour in no small degree of Quixotism. The fat little visiter, however, sat down entirely at his ease, and appeared as though he was endeavouring to fetch his breath again after the laborious ascent of the stairs.

"Asthmatic!" thought the physician, gazing intensely upon the subject before him, and redeeming at the same time in an instant every thing he had read upon that disease.

"My dear Sir, what is the matter?" at length said Doctor Welkin, unable to bridle his impatience.

"Why, Doctor Welkin, I am a little asthmatic, and the fatigue of reaching you has overpowered me; but I shall be better presently. I am not always subject to these attacks."

"Just as I thought," muttered Welkin very complacently. "How long is it since you have been troubled with this complaint, Sir?" he asked again with tender

ness.

"Oh! nearly twenty years, I suppose," returned Mr. Squaggs, rather abruptly.

I am surprised that you never thought of having advice before," continued the doctor, rather astonished at the obstinacy of the disease he imagined himself called upon to combat.

"Oh, why, as to advice," replied Squaggs, "I've had plenty of that; but you know that asthma is not cured in a day."

"True, Mr. Squaggs," rejoined the physician; "but sometimes a lucky practitioner is allowed by Providence to discover a remedy which has escaped the faculty for centuries."

"Yes, yes," said the other, "and the author of the new medicine, you know, is called a quack.'

"Yes, he's called a quack, certainly," answered Welkin, evidently disconcerted at the smartness of the re

ply; "but the asthma is a disagreeable complaint, nevertheless, and if it can be cured-why, surely there is no harm-"

"Oh! none; none at all!" exclaimed Squaggs with great calmness. "I feel myself better now.

"I'm glad to hear it, Sir," said the doctor.

"I shall be able to mention my business to you directly," observed the guest, without more emotion than the paroxysm of his disease had obviously occasioned.

"Your business!" repeated Doctor Welkin, with some surprise; "you didn't come to consult me about the asthma, then, did you, Sir? I hope nothing worse."

"Consult you about the asthma! ha! ha! ha! I really beg your pardon, though, doctor," cried Mr. Squaggs. "No; I certainly did not come for that purpose. Why, you hav'nt got your diploma yet, have you?"

"My diploma, Sir?"

"Why, don't you recollect Ambrose Squaggs?"

"'Pon my word," replied the physician, "I do not -indeed I do not. And at this moment, taking into consideration the negligent state of his figure, Doctor Welkin looked doubly forbidding. But the visiter was not to be so easily repulsed.

"Why," said Mr. Squaggs, "it is a good one for you to talk to me about the asthma, when you know we were pupils together at Doctor Threeleeches'."

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Pupils together at Doctor Threeleeches', Sir!" interrupted Welkin hastily.

"Yes-indeed," said Mr. Squaggs, with an ease which showed that he felt himself quite at home; and there was yet an air of gentility about the visiter which forbade Doctor Welkin from deeming his freedom impertinence.

"Squaggs-Squaggs-Squaggs," said the doctor impatiently. "'Pon my word, my memory is very short. There was a man of the name of Scour, and a Mr. Cripplegripe, and a a Monsieur Bol-a-vent-but no Squaggs-pardon me, no Squaggs; a mistake, Sir, I feel convinced; I really beg your pardon, but no Squaggs."

So far from now feeling suicidal, the doctor began to enjoy the jest of a ludicrous mistake, for such he began to esteem the ill-explained visit.

"Oh! I think," returned the guest, "that I can set the matter right. My grandmother's relation, Mr.

Swipes, left me five hundred pounds about a year since, and I changed my name. Now, do you know, Welkin, I quite forgot to tell you that before. My original name was Washthrough.

"Washthrough! Bless my soul!" cried the physician, as though he had started from a dream; "to be sureWashthrough" Here the doctor advanced generously, and shook hands with his visiter.

"A most displeasing name," continued Welkin; "if I recollect right, we used to joke you about the name. Well, I don't know, I don't think you've changed much for the better,-Squaggs, eh?"

66

Yes, that's the name,'

all right now.

وو

said Mr. Ambrose. "It's

"Pray is there any Mrs. Squaggs?" resumed Welkin; "and what are you doing now?"

"Why, now you're coming to the object of my visit, Dr. Welkin," replied the other. "I am practising as an apothecary in South Street-quite the West End; and I have a capital business, I assure you."

"An apothecary!" exclaimed Dr. Welkin, with as much contempt as good breeding could possibly allow of. "Yes; why you know I was always intended for an apothecary."

"Oh! I know; yes; very true-certainly. I didn't mean any thing. I hope I didn't offend you," observed the physician, with a feeling of the utmost disrespect towards his South Street acquaintance.

"Oh! no offence; but I suppose you're doing very well, for you're a little airish, I think," said the apothecary.

"Now, my dear Squaggs," replied the doctor, "I was a little brisk-it's my manner. You don't know what vexatious things have annoyed me lately." Here he drew a long sigh. "I was just about to keep my carriage, and go round to my patients in style, when this horrid panic

"Ah! the panic

sold all out; that is to say, what little I had."

"I

"You lucky dog!" said Welkin. "I have been ruined by it, utterly ruined, my dear Squaggs.'

"Why, then you're the very man I want, Welkin," said thé visiter.

"I am! Why you couldn't lend me a hundred pounds,

could you?" said the physician, with a tone inspired by an entirely new train of hopes.

"A hundred pounds! why, that's nothing," returned Mr. Squaggs.

"Nothing! admirable!-out of your savings; your gains from the panic, which has ruined many a poor fellow!" Here the doctor heaved another heavy sigh.

"I'll lend you a hundred pounds for old acquaintance sake with pleasure," said the medical man-" upon good security. "Dr. Weikin's countenance sunk at the mention of security.

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Why, my dear fellow," said the Doctor, "I have hardly got a shilling in the world! Indeed, I believe, if you had not come in when you did, I should have destroyed myself, put myself to death!"

"No man knows how to do it better," replied Squaggs, with much complacency.

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Nay, nay, now, brother Squaggs

"Don't call me brother Squaggs; I'm only an apothecary, though I do practise at the West End." "My dear fellow!"

66

"Don't dear fellow me now," said the apothecary, you shall have some assistance; but hear me, listen to my business with you. You see I have not long set up for myself in the west, and it takes a long time, a great deal of patience, and a wonderful share of acuteness to get on. Well! I've got all these qualifications, and a tolerably gentlemanly exterior besides."

"Humph!" muttered Welkin, who was instantly struck with terror for fear that his sneer had been noticed.

"But that is not quite enough," resumed Mr. Squaggs; "we want a young physician of good address. and pleasing manners who can recommend us, and we can do him a good office in return."

"A sort of mutual recommendation?” said Doctor Welkin.

"Precisely so. You set up your chariot," said the apothecary, "and put a good face on things, make a good figure in the world, and give your friends a word in season; and, of course, we feel it our duty to do something friendly for Doctor Welkin."

"But where shall I find the money for this adventure?" inquired the doctor rather eagerly.

"Oh! as to that, I dare say I can do something for