to experience the hospitality of the _west room;_--a spare apartment, in
which Doctor Gray occasionally accommodated such patients, as he desired
to keep for a space of time under his own eye.

There were two persons only in the vehicle. The one, a gentleman in a
riding dress, sprung out, and having received from the Doctor an
assurance that the lady would receive tolerable accommodation in his
house, he lent assistance to his companion to leave the carriage, and
with great apparent satisfaction, saw her safely deposited in a decent
sleeping apartment, and under the respectable charge of the Doctor and
his lady, who assured him once more of every species of attention. To
bind their promise more firmly, the stranger slipped a purse of twenty
guineas (for this story chanced in the golden age) into the hand of the
Doctor, as an earnest of the most liberal recompense, and requested he
would spare no expense in providing all that was necessary or desirable
for a person in the lady's condition, and for the helpless being to whom
she might immediately be expected to give birth. He then said he would
retire to the inn, where he begged a message might instantly acquaint
him with the expected change in the lady's situation.

"She is of rank," he said, "and a foreigner; let no expense be spared.
We designed to have reached Edinburgh, but were forced to turn off the
road by an accident." Once more he said, "Let no expense be spared, and
manage that she may travel as soon as possible."

"That," said the Doctor, "is past my control. Nature must not be
hurried, and she avenges herself of every attempt to do so."

"But art," said the stranger, "can do much," and he proffered a second
purse, which seemed as heavy as the first.