“Very possible,” said the doctor: “what is there so extraordinary in a man’s falling asleep? Men are apt to sleep sometime within the four-and-twenty hours, unless they have half-a-dozen mistresses to keep them awake, as you seem to have, my good friend.” A servant now came into the room with a letter, that had just arrived express from the country for Dr. X----. “This is another affair,” cried he, rousing himself. The letter required the doctor’s immediate attendance. He shook hands with Clarence Hervey: “My dear friend, I am really concerned that I cannot stay to hear the history of your six mistresses; but you see that this is an affair of life and death.” “Farewell,” said Clarence: “I have not six, I have only three goddesses; even if you count Lady Delacour for one. But I really wanted your advice in good earnest.” “If your case be desperate, you can write, cannot you? Direct to me at Horton-hall, Cambridge. In the mean time, as far as general rules go, I can give you my advice gratis, in the formula of an old Scotch song---- “‘Tis good to be merry and wise, ‘Tis good to be honest and true, ‘Tis good to be off with the old love Before you be on with the new.’” CHAPTER XI. DIFFICULTIES. Before he left town, Dr. X---- called in Berkeley-square, to see Lady Delacour; he found that she was out of all immediate danger. Miss Portman was sorry that he was obliged to quit her at this time, but she felt the necessity for his going; he was sent for to attend Mr. Horton, an intimate friend of his, a gentleman of great talents, and of the most active benevolence, who had just been seized with a violent fever, in consequence of his exertions in saving the poor inhabitants of a village in his neighbourhood from the effects of a dreadful fire, which broke out in the middle of the night. Lady Delacour, who heard Dr. X---- giving this account to Belinda, drew back her curtain, and said, “Go this instant, doctor--I am out of all immediate danger, you say; but if I were not--I must die in the course of a few months, you know--and what is my life, compared with the chance of saving your excellent friend! He is of some use in the world--I am of none--go this instant, doctor.” “What a pity,” said Dr. X----, as he left the room, “that a woman who is capable of so much magnanimity should have wasted her life on petty objects!” “Her life is not yet at an end--oh, sir, if you _could_ save her!” cried Belinda. Doctor X---- shook his head; but returning to Belinda, after going half way down stairs, he added, “when you read this paper, you will know all that I can tell you upon the subject.”