assailants.

"Well, I said I would submit, and not say a word, if Dr. Wheeler was
against me," she began; "but I cannot sit by silent: I must protest
against this cruel, cruel decree, so contrary too to what I hoped and
expected would be Dr. Wheeler's opinion."

Poor Dr. Wheeler twinkled and seemed as if he would have rubbed his
eyes, not sure whether he was awake or in a dream. In his perplexity,
he apprehended that he had misunderstood Mrs. Beaumont's note, and he
now prepared to make his way round again through the solids and the
fluids, and the whole nervous system, till, by favour of
_idiosyncrasy_, he hoped to get out of his difficulty, and to allow Mr.
Palmer to remain on British ground. Mrs. Beaumont's face, in spite of
her powers of simulation, lengthened and lengthened, and darkened and
darkened, as he proceeded in his recantation; but, when the exception
to the general axiom was fairly made out, and a clear permit to remain
in England granted, by such high medical authority, she forced a smile,
and joined loudly in the general congratulations. Whilst her son was
triumphing and shaking hands with Mr. Palmer, she slipped down stairs
after Dr. Wheeler.

"Ah, doctor! What have you done! Ruined me! ruined me! Didn't you
read my note? Didn't you _understand_ it?--I thought a word to the
wise was enough."

"Why!--then it was as I understood it at first? So I thought; but then I
fancied I must be mistaken afterwards; for when I expected support, my
dear madam, you opposed my opinion in favour of Jamaica more warmly than
any one, and what was I to think?"