resolutely] he is your mother's brother, Pisistratus. I should have gone
to town at once, but hearing that my wife had written to you, I waited
till I could leave her to the companionship of hope and comfort,--two
blessings that smile upon every mother in the face of a son like you.
To-morrow I go."

"Not a bit of it," said Mr. Squills, firmly; "as your medical adviser, I
forbid you to leave the house for the next six days."

(1) Tibullus, iii. 4,55.




CHAPTER II.


"Sir," continued Mr. Squills, biting off the end of a cigar which he
pulled from his pocket, "you concede to me that it is a very important
business on which you propose to go to London."

"Of that there is no doubt," replied my father.

"And the doing of business well or ill entirely depends upon the habit of
body!" cried Mr. Squills, triumphantly. "Do you know, Mr. Caxton, that
while you are looking so calm, and talking so quietly,--just on purpose
to sustain your son and delude your wife,--do you know that your pulse,
which is naturally little more than sixty, is nearly a hundred? Do you
know, sir, that your mucous membranes are in a state of high irritation,
apparent by the papillce at the tip of your tongue? And if, with a pulse