The lady took him at his word—laid his fee on the table, and threw the prescription into the fire, and hastily left the room. Abernethy followed her into the hall, pressing her to take back her fee, or to let him give her another prescription; but the lady was inexorable, and left the house. The foregoing is well-authenticated. Mr. Stowe knows the lady well, who is still living. But many of these stories, to our own knowledge, were greatly exaggerated. Abernethy would sometimes offend, not so much by the manner as by the matter; by saying what were very salutary, but very unpleasant truths, and of which the patient perhaps felt only the sting. We know a gentleman, an old fox-hunter, who abused Abernethy roundly; but all he could say against him was: "Why, sir, almost the moment I entered the room, he said: 'I perceive you drink a good deal,'" which was very true. "Now," added the patient, very _naïvely_, "suppose I did, what the devil was that to him!" Another gentleman, of considerable literary reputation, but who, as regarded drinking, was not intemperate, had a most unfortunate appearance on his nose, exactly like that which frequently accompanies dram-drinking. This gentleman used to be exceedingly irate against Abernethy, although all I could gather from him amounted to nothing more than this, that when he said his stomach was out of order, Abernethy observed, "Ay, I see that by your nose," or some equivalent expression. However rough Abernethy could occasionally be, there was, on grave occasions, no feature of his character more striking than his humanity. Dr. Barnett[74] had a case where Abernethy was about to perform a severe operation. The Doctor, at that time a young man, was anxious to have every thing duly prepared, and had been very careful. When Abernethy arrived, he went into the room into which the patient was to be brought, and, looking on the instruments, &c. on the table, said: "Ay, yes, that is all right;" then, pausing for a moment, he said: "No, there is one thing you have forgotten;" and then, throwing a napkin over the instruments, added: "It is bad enough for the poor patient to have to undergo an operation, without being obliged to see those terrible instruments."