disturb you. But there's Colonel Whattle, and Sir Peter Dabble below." " Mr. I beg

"Sir Peter Dabble!" cried Mammon. pardon, Doctor Welkin, I am sure you will excuse me, must attend to my customers."

66

"Sir, you shall not move, " said the doctor, "before I have a promise from you to return me some part at all events of the stock you have robbed me of." And upon that Dr. Welkin placed himself against the door. Very well, very well, doctor," returned Mammon, opening another door on the further side of the room. "There," continued he, speaking to his clerk. "Brisk, go and fetch me an officer-go. But whilst the young man retired to obey this order, Doctor Welkin clenched his fist, and advanced towards the broker in an attitude which promised nothing short of instant hostility.

"An assault, an assault,” shouted Mammon-" Help! help!"

"You griping, faithless wretch!" continued Welkin, holding his fist in the face of the astonished money calculator; "do you think to escape me by sending for constables, and bullying a man who is going out of your doors nearly penniless? Do you? you base Jew!" The spirit of abuse seemed to add fury to the already awakened wrath of the doctor, for he proceeded to grasp his victim by the collar, and had it not been for the entrance of the clerk accompanied by an officer, more violence had undoubtedly been perpetrated. The timely assistance, however, of a stout constable, aided as he was by the servant and his master, soon removed the outrageous physician from the scene of action; and Doctor Welkin retired from the office vowing the most relentless revenge against the firm of Mammon and Company, together with a hundred solemn pledges that he would instantly set both attorney and counsel at work to gain redress for the wrongs he had suffered.

The din of the Exchange went on as usual, and the obnoxious Mammon continued to make and to dissolve bargains, as indifferently as though he had never hazarded his client's money, nor ruined an inconsiderate though greedy speculator like Doctor Welkin.

CHAPTER II.

THE PHYSICIAN AND THE APOTHECARY.

"Well, but now I do suppose you would readily acquaint me, that all the good experienced nurses are tutorizing or doctorizing ladies, or others still confirm it more strongly to you, ever recounting an infinity of great cures performed by the great [Physician.] Nay, that even your well, and so very notably-practised and experienced Apothecary, (who unquestionably and surely must be a good, or the best judge of these matters,) likewise confirms it, and assures you of the same. How can there then, say you, be any mistake? Yet I beg of you, dear sir, to allow me to ask you, will not my very next reader, by the same rule, assure me of the same thing, and the like assurances from his Apothecary or other the good woman or people about him, or his Physician also ?"

One Physician is e'en as good as t'other, pp. 2, 3.

DOCTOR WELKIN went home to his lodgings; they were the same which he had occupied before his temporary absence abroad, from whence he had only returned to witness the frustration of his projects, and the wreck of his fortunes. These rooms were on the second floor, in a street hard by the money mart, from whence the doctor could issue with ease and security, to ascertain the fluctuations of the market. He had been hoping for some years to amend the reduced condition of a small property which his parents had left behind, and which he had found no difficulty in lessening by a variety of speculations and extravagances. From the humble dwelling he inhabited, it was the intention of Dr. Welkin to emerge in the character of a regular physician, legitimately prepared to effect cures and dispense prescriptions without limit, with a carriage ready built for the enticement of a wealthy alliance, and a house well furnished and ornamented, either for the reception of patients, or a moneyed heiress. This hope however became more and more distant, as constant neglect and consequent failures contributed to impair the fund from which these expenses were to be defrayed, till at length, in common with most unsuccessful gamesters, the doctor determined to risk every thing, and to rise or fall by one desperate attempt. To attain this, he entrusted his broker with very full powers, and retired from the bustle of the scene in confidence that prosperity was

awaiting his venture. Chance, however, did not befriend him, as we have already had occasion to show, although it is more than probable, that had he remained at home to manage his own affairs, he might have succeeded in no ordinary degree; for it has been said, (although we cannot vouch for the fact,) that whilst Mammon and another broker were disputing about a turn, as it is called, (a technical term of no great honesty,) the stocks gave way in the alarming manner which has been related, and consequently, the intended sale of Welkin's property, by which he would have been a great gainer, did not take place. It afterwards became necessary to sell it for the purpose of paying differences, a ruinous debt which was as much owing to the obstinacy of the broker as to the perilous change of public credit which took place at that time.

In this unpromising state, Doctor Welkin, without either carriage or house, was compelled to seek the shelter of his lodging, most fully repining at the past, and sadly uncertain concerning the future. The sight of a common mahogany table, a few cane-seated chairs, a worn horse-hair sofa, a tea-chest of many generations, and a spinnet dated about 1750, the everlasting ornaments of the sitting-room, sharpened all his bitter recollections. He sipped his tea mournfully, with the only silver spoon which could be spared him, thought on a thousand matters, conjured up hopes which faded as he dwelt upon them, and at length surrendered at discretion to the deepest despair. And desperate indeed might have been the result of the doctor's meditations, had he not bethought himself of the mysteries of his art. A worshipper of opium almost from his boyhood, he never failed to invoke the aid of that drug upon a painful emergency. Upon this occasion he drew forth from an exquisite ivory box, one of the few luxuries which yet remained to him, the potent medicament which was to dispel the clouds of dismay, and rear up those golden visions he had so often courted with success. A larger draught than usual was prepared for this critical season, a measure so immense, that an, unpractised speculator would soon have gone to the cave of the seven sleepers, such, and so great was the cup which the doctor drank off without trembling, at this painful hour. The spell soon took effect; the physician had not miscalculated

the strength of his resources, nor presumed too much upon his power of resisting the poison; he sat entranced awhile, like the enchanters of old, delighted by the most fascinating futurities, and wrapt in the most joyous conceptions; then suddenly fell into a sound and increasing slumber, which yielded not till long after the full noon of the succeeding day.

Nature at length rallied, and the doctor unconsciously returned to life and sense. He rose anxiously from his bed, forgetful for a time of the calamities which had overwhelmed him. The magical charm had not yet entirely dispersed; he hastened to the breakfast table, called for the newspaper, and mechanically threw his eye towards the prices of the public funds. Still the spell held on; his full recollection had not returned; he did as he had been wont in former days. Without daring to read the interesting page which contained the desired numbers, he first threw the paper on the table, started from his seat, placed his hand against his forehead, and paced the room with hurried strides. Again he adventured to read, and again apprehension frighted him from his purpose. He seized the journal at length, (such had always been his custom,) glanced rapidly over the mo ney calculations, and was in an instant restored to the remembrance of his fallen condition. There were the prices indeed, but he had now no funds to maintain, nor money to hazard. The powers of the drug had evaporated, and the absolute wretchedness of his state was awfully present to the doctor's mind; there was, literally, no chance for him; the brilliant visions of his imagination had closed, and objects ghastly and terrible danced around him. Nature refused her aid, for her resources were spent; hope gleamed no longer, for there was no prospect to entice her; joy was banished, for the seeds of delight had been exterminated.

"This is the end of a stock exchange gamester," exclaimed Welkin, grasping a phial which lay near him full of deadly liquor. "For ten years," continued he, in a state of agitation, "for ten years have I watched the daily press, morning after morning, and these are the fruits ruined by my own friend, and cut, as I shall be, by every one of my acquaintance. Come," added the doctor, uncorking the bottle, death is far better

than poverty, and nobody thinks it wrong now-a-days, to get rid of an obnoxious and care-worn life.”

And really, but that the doctor had philosophized rather too much, it would be exceedingly hazardous to affirm that he was not in earnest upon this occasion. He had taken the right bottle, he had drawn forth the cork, he had done all except to lift the phial to his lips, perhaps to mutter a prayer first. Whether cowardice, or selfishness, or philosophy, might have swayed Dr. Welkin at the fatal critical moment, it is now impossible to determine; he might have quailed beneath the killing vision which presented itself before him; he might have lent a greedy ear to a new tale of hope; he might have had vouchsafed to him a glimpse of reason; in fact, he might have done any thing save the swallowing of the poison. But matters were destined far otherwise. At this important crisis, a thundering knock was heard at the street door; such a summons had hardly been experienced at the doctor's place of residence for half a century; it was a knock of authority. Dr. Welkin started, and evidently abandoned for a few seconds all thoughts of suicide. Mrs. Twitch, the landlady, entered the room rather abruptly, and asked if she should go down to the door. The physician still held the awful phial in his hand, and whatever his thoughts were, looked like a man bent in good earnest upon a desperate deed.

"But God bless the good gentleman!" said Mrs. Twitch, clasping her hands together, "what is the matter with him?"

"What's the matter! what's the matter indeed!" returned the doctor with a voice much unlike that of a man reprieved from death; "do you go down, Mrs. Twitch, and open the door, do; don't you hear the knocking?"

Notwithstanding this appeal, Mrs. Twitch looked confused, and incapable of executing the doctor's command, and immediately another awakening motion of the knocker resounded through the house.

"Now, there now! Mrs. Twitch," vociferated Dr. Welkin; "now that's some patient come for me, and he can't get in through your obstinacy. Now, good woman, do go, and make haste!”

"But bless the gentleman!" echoed Mrs. Twitch,