As soon as Mr. Round had gone from the room a general rallying was the result. "The bore is gone, the valetudinarian has made his exit," exclaimed Master Thompson, rather excited. "O how pleased I am that he has left!" said Miss Young. "So am I," responded Mr. Baker, "for he is one of the greatest plagues that ever came near me. He is enough to give one the horrors, in hearing so much of his sick talk." "He was not satisfied in simply telling us that he was not very well; but he must enter into a long and tedious detail of all his sicknesses," observed Mr. Wales. "Well, poor man, he is to be pitied, after all. He suffers a great deal more in his imagination from his sickness than we have in reality by hearing him tell of it," said Miss Swaithe, a little sympathetically. "I don't know about that," said young Spencer. "Is Round gone, then?" asked Mr. Burr, a young man who had left the room soon after he came in, having been annoyed with his valetudinarian twaddle. "He's no more," answered Miss Glass, in a tone somewhat ironically funereal. "Why, he's not dead, is he?" inquired Mr. Burr, quickly. "I should not be surprised if he were; for, judging from what he said, one would expect him to die any moment." "O no; he's not the one to die yet, be sure of that; but he's gone for the night," said Miss Glass. "Thank goodness for his departure: I do not mean to another world, but from this company. Yet where would be the harm in wishing him in heaven, where none shall ever say they are sick?" said Mr. Ferriday. "I see no harm in wishing a good thing like that," said Miss Bond--"a good thing for him and other people too." "Don't be so unkind and unmerciful," said Mrs. Grant. "I do not think I am so," replied Miss Bond, "for if he was in heaven, he would be cured of all his diseases; and he says he never shall be in this world. And then other people would be happily exempted from the misery of listening to his invalid tales every time they met with him." "How his wife does to live with him I cannot tell," remarked Miss Bond. "I suppose she is used to him," said Mr. Burr. "Come now, let us have no more talk about Mr. Round, or we shall be catching some of his diseases," said Miss Crane. Soon after the above talk had ceased, Mr. Burr took up a copy of Cowper's poems which lay on the table. He opened on the subject of "Conversation," and, in reading, came to the part which describes the Valetudinarian. Having read it over to himself, he could not refrain asking permission to read it aloud. "Although we have dismissed the subject of Mr. Round," said Mr. Burr, "yet, if the company have no objection, I would like to read from Cowper's poems a short piece which I think will interest you, as being descriptive of the Valetudinarian, who has been with us this evening." General consent being given, Mr. Burr read as follows:--