the doctor's confidence in his new remedies. I grew weaker and
weaker.

My uncle came to see me. He was so alarmed that he insisted on a
consultation being held with his own physician. Another great
authority was called in, at the same time, by the urgent request
of my own medical man. These distinguished persons held more than
one privy council, before they would consent to give a positive
opinion. It was an evasive opinion (encumbered with hard words of
Greek and Roman origin) when it was at last pronounced. I waited
until they had taken their leave, and then appealed to my own
doctor. "What do these men really think?" I asked. "Shall I live,
or die?"

The doctor answered for himself as well as for his illustrious
colleagues. "We have great faith in the new prescriptions," he
said.

I understood what that meant. They were afraid to tell me the
truth. I insisted on the truth.

"How long shall I live?" I said. "Till the end of the year?"

The reply followed in one terrible word:

"Perhaps."

It was then the first week in December. I understood that I might
reckon--at the utmost--on three weeks of life. What I felt, on
arriving at this conclusion, I shall not say. It is the one