chairs in the board-room), and taking a handsome gold snuffbox from the pocket of his black satin waistcoat. "How are you? A little worn with business, eh? If so, rest. A little feverish from wine, humph? If so, water. Nothing at all the matter, and quite comfortable? Then take some lunch. A very wholesome thing at this time of day to strengthen the gastric juices with lunch, Mr. Montague."
The medical officer (he was the same medical officer who had followed poor old Anthony Chuzzlewit to the grave, and who had attended Mrs. Gamp's patient at the Bull) smiled in saying these words; and casually added, as he brushed some grains of snuff from his shirt-frill, "I always take it myself about this time of day, do you know!"
"Bullamy!" said the chairman, ringing the little bell.
"Sir!"
"Lunch."
"Not on my account, I hope?" said the doctor. "You are very good. Thank you. I'm quite ashamed. Ha, ha! if I had been a sharp practitioner, Mr. Montague, I shouldn't have mentioned it without a fee; for you may depend upon it, my dear sir, that if you don't make a point of taking lunch, you 'll very soon come under my hands. Allow me to illustrate this. In Mr. Crimple's leg—"
The resident Director gave an involuntary start, for the Doctor, in the heat of his demonstration, caught it up and laid it across his own, as if he were going to take it off, then and there.
"In Mr. Crimple's leg, you 'll observe," pursued the Doctor, turning back his cuffs and spanning the limb with both hands, "where Mr. Crimple's knee fits into the socket, here, there is—that is to say, between the bone and the socket—a certain quantity of animal oil."
"What do you pick my leg out for?" said Mr. Crimple, looking with something of an anxious expression at his limb. "It's the same with other legs, ain't it?"
"Never you mind, my good sir," returned the Doctor, shaking his head, "whether it is the same with other legs, or not the same."
"But I do mind," said David.
"I take a particular case, Mr. Montague," returned the Doctor, "as illustrating my remark, you observe. In this portion of Mr. Crimple's leg, sir, there is a certain amount of animal oil. In every one of Mr. Crimple's joints, sir, there is more or less of the same deposit. Very good. If Mr. Crimple neglects his meals, or fails to take his proper quantity of rest, that oil wanes, and becomes exhausted. What is the consequence? Mr. Crimple's bones sink down into their sockets, sir, and Mr. Crimple becomes a weazen, puny, stunted, miserable man!"
The Doctor let Mr. Crimple's leg fall suddenly, as if he were already in that agreeable condition: turned down his wristbands again, and looked triumphantly at the chairman.
"We know a few secrets of nature in our profession, sir," said the Doctor. "Of course we do. We study for that; we pass the Hall and the College for that; and we take our station in society by that. It's extraordinary how little is known on these subjects generally. Where do you suppose, now"—the doctor closed one eye, as he leaned back smilingly in his chair, and formed a triangle with his hands, of which
