What with air, exercise, wholesome food, and smiles of welcome, and
delicious petting, this egotist enjoyed himself finely. He admitted as
much. Says he, one evening to his wife, who sat by him for the pleasure
of seeing him feed, "It sounds absurd; but I never was so happy in all
my life."

At that, the celestial expression of her pastoral face, and the maternal
gesture with which she drew her pet's head to her queenly bosom, was a
picture for celibacy to gnash the teeth at.




CHAPTER IX.


During this period, the most remarkable things that happened to Dr. and
Mrs. Staines were really those which I have related as connecting them
with Phoebe Dale and her brother; to which I will now add that Dr.
Staines detailed Dick's case in a remarkable paper, entitled "Oedema of
the Glottis," and showed how the patient had been brought back from
the grave by tracheotomy and artificial respiration. He received a high
price for this article.

To tell the truth, he was careful not to admit that it was he who had
opened the windpipe; so the credit of the whole operation was given to
Mr. Jenkyn; and this gentleman was naturally pleased, and threw a good
many consultation fees in Staines's way.

The Lucases, to his great comfort--for he had an instinctive aversion to