cried he. "Cure is not welcome unless it comes in the form consecrated by
cinturies of slaughter. Well, then, give me a sheet." He took the paper
and rent it asunder, and wrote this on the larger fragment:

Rx Die Mercur. circa x. hor: vespert:
eat in musca ad Aulam oppid:
Saltet cum xiii canicul:
praesertim meo. Dom: reddita,
6 hora matutin: dormiat at prand:
Repetat stultit: pro re nata.

He handed this with a sort of spiteful twinkle to Mrs. Dodd, and her
countenance lightened again. Her sex will generally compound with whoever
can give as well as take. Now she had extracted a real, grave
prescription, she acquiesced in the ball, though not a county one; "to
satisfy your whim, my good, kind friend, to whom I owe so much."


Sampson called on his way back to town, and, in course of conversation,
praised nature for her beautiful instincts, one of which, he said, had
inspired Miss Julee, at a credulous age, not to swallow "the didly
drastics of the tinkering dox."

Mrs. Dodd smiled, and requested permission to contradict him; her
daughter had taken the several prescriptions.

Sampson inquired brusquely if she took him for a fool.

She replied calmly: "No; for a very clever, but _rather_ opinionated
personage.