'I think Mr. Winterbones had better go back to the London office,' said he. 'Lady Scatcherd will be your best clerk for some little time, Sir Roger.'
'Then I'll be d if Mr. Winterbones does anything of the kind,' said he; 'so there's an end of that.'
'Very well,' said the doctor. 'A man can die but once. It is my duty to suggest measures for putting off the ceremony as long as possible. Perhaps, however, you may wish to hasten it.'
'Well, I am not very anxious about it, one way or the other,' said Scatcherd. And as he spoke there came a fierce gleam from his eye, which seemed to say—'If that's the bugbear with which you wish to frighten me, you will find that you are mistaken.'
'Now, doctor, don't let him talk that way, don't,' said Lady Scatcherd, with her handkerchief to her eyes.
'Now, my lady, do you cut it; cut at once,' said Sir Roger, turning hastily round to his better-half; and his better-half, knowing that the province of a woman is to obey, did cut it. But as she went she gave the doctor a pull by the coat-sleeve, so that thereby his healing faculties might be sharpened to the very utmost.
'The best woman in the world, doctor; the very best,' said he, as the door closed behind the wife of his bosom.
'I'm sure of it,' said the doctor.
'Yes, till you find a better one,' said Scatcherd. 'Ha! ha! ha! but good or bad, there are some things which a woman can't understand, and some things which she ought not to be let to understand.'
'It's natural she should be anxious about your health, you know.'
'I don't know that,' said the contractor. 'She'll be very well off. All that whining won't keep a man alive, at any rate.'
There then was a pause, during which the doctor continued his medical examination. To this the patient submitted with a bad grace; but still he did submit.
'We must turn over a new leaf, Sir Roger; indeed we must.'
'Bother,' said Sir Roger.
'Well, Scatcherd; I must do my duty to you, whether you like it or not.'
'That is to say, I am to pay you for trying to frighten me.'
'No human nature can stand such shocks as these much longer.'
'Winterbones,' said the contractor, turning to his clerk, 'go down, go down, I say; but don't be out of the way. If you go
