Vol.1 f.055 recto

[a???? ??d??de confidence][e????ded confidence] a sense of perfect [complete]absolute completeness , but he soon delivered as he presently [??? ?????] delivered the opinion , “
[but] [?? ???? ???ple????? ?said] We are as right as we can be, Mrs Flinx, and
we shall come out of this like a house afire;” and as he and [Mrs Fl] Mrs Flinx took possession of the
[???] poor helpless [??????] pair , as everybody else and anybody else had always done ; [????em? all ??? open ??d ??pe???] the [c????m????ts ??????? ????]
?????????ping ???means at hand were [?????]as good on the whole as better would?????[un??] have been. The
[???] remarkable special feature in Doctor Haggage’s treatment of the case, was his great [????????] determination to keep Mrs
Flinx Mrs Flinxup to the mark. [???i?????d] it thusAs thus:
“ Mrs Flinx Flinx ,” said the doctor ?il??????g?????] before he had been there twenty minutes, “Yougo out and fetch a little
brandy, or we shall have you giving in ” [al??o ???? ???????d??????? , a ??? most wanted"
“?? ???? ????Thank you, sir. But [??] none on my accounts sir ,” said MrsFlinx Flinx [?i?d resign?ti? ??????fr???i? ?????????.

“Mrs Flinx Flinx ,” returned the Doctor, “if you don'tI am in professional attendance
on this lady, and dare not going [???ed] don’t choose to allow any discussion on your part.You Go outside and fetch a little
brandy, or I foresee that you’ll break down.”

“W??????You’re to be obeyed sir,” said Mrs Flhx Flinx Flinx , rising. ??“O?????? ??If you'll beh??? i??? you ???ge was to put your own lips to it ?????, I
think you wouldn’t be the worse ?e? for you look but poorly sir.”

“Mrs Mrs Flhx Flinx Flinx ,” returned the doctor, “I am not your business, I am obligethank you; but you are mine.
Never you mind me, if you please. What you have got to do, is, to do as you are told, and
get one ???? get ??what I bid you.”

Mrs Flinx complet submitted; and the doctor [????? his have, another ????] having administered her potion, took [??????? but] took his own.
He repeated the treatment every hour, being very determined with Mrs Bangham. Three or four hours passed; the flies fell into the traps by hundreds; and at length one little life,
hardly stronger than theirs, appeared among the multitude of lesser deaths.

“A very nice little girl indeed,” said the doctor; “little, but well-formed. Halloa, Mrs Bangham! You’re looking queer! You be off, ma’am, this minute, and fetch a little more brandy, or we shall have you in hysterics.”

By this time, the rings had begun to fall from the debtor’s irresolute hands, like leaves from a wintry tree. Not one was left upon them that night, when he put something that chinked into the doctor’s greasy palm. In the meantime Mrs Bangham had been out on an errand to a neighbouring establishment decorated with three golden balls, where she was very well known.

“Thank you,” said the doctor, “thank you. Your good lady is quite composed. Doing charmingly.”

“I am very happy and very thankful to know it,” said the debtor, “though I little thought once, that—”

“That a child would be born to you in a place like this?” said the doctor. “Bah, bah, sir, what does it signify? A little more elbow-room is all we want here. We are quiet here; we don’t get badgered here; there’s no knocker here, sir, to be hammered at by creditors and bring a man’s heart into his mouth. Nobody comes here to ask if a man’s at home, and to say he’ll stand on the door mat till he is. Nobody writes threatening letters about money to this place. It’s freedom, sir, it’s freedom! I have had to-day’s practice at home and abroad, on a march, and aboard ship, and I’ll tell you this: I don’t know that I have ever pursued it under such quiet circumstances as here this day. Elsewhere, people are restless, worried, hurried about, anxious respecting one thing, anxious respecting another. Nothing of the kind here, sir. We have done all that—we know the worst of it; we have got to the bottom, we can’t fall, and what have we found? Peace. That’s the word for it. Peace.” With this profession of faith, the doctor, who was an old jail-bird, and was more sodden than usual, and had