Next morning Doctor Unonius was called away from his breakfast to visit Sarah Puckey, an aged market woman or 'regrater,' whom he found in a state of prostration following (it was alleged) upon a severe nervous shock. He attended the old woman for the remainder of her days, which were few; and while they lasted she remained--in the language of Polpeor--a 'bedrider.' She never confided to him the nature of the shock which had laid her low; but at the last, satisfied of her own salvation, she worried herself sadly over the doctor and his defenceless life. 'I'm a saved woman,' she declared, 'and a dyin' old woman, and these things be clear to my eyes. A wife--that's what you want. Your laudanums and your doldadums and your nummy-dummies[1] may be all very well--' 'What are they?' asked the doctor. 'Latin,' she answered promptly. 'I be a dyin' woman, I tell 'ee, an' got the gift o' tongues. . . . And your 'natomies and fishes' innards may be all very well, but you want a wife to look after the money an' tell the men to wipe their sea-boots 'pon the front mat. When it comes to their unpickin' a trawl in your very drawin'-room, an' fish scales all over the best Brussels, as I've a-see'd 'em before now--' Mrs Puckey paused for breath. 'Have 'ee ever had a mind to the widow Tresize?' she asked. 'Certainly not,' the doctor answered. 'That's a pity, too: for Landeweddy Farm's her own freehold, an' I've heard her say more'n once how sorry she feels for you, livin' alone as you do. I don't everyways like Missus Tresize, but she's a bowerly woman an' nimble for her age--which can't be forty, not by a year or two. Old Tresize married her for her looks. I mind goin' to the weddin', an' she brought en no more'n her clothes an' herself inside of 'em: an' now she've a-buried th' old doter, an' sits up at Landeweddy in her own parlour a-playin' the pianner with both hands. What d'ee reckon a woman does _that_ for?' 'Maybe because she is fond of music,' said Doctor Unonius dryly. The invalid chuckled, until her old head in its white mob-cap nodded against the white pillow propping it.