"He is better now, my child; and it will, perhaps, be a lesson to him," he added to the lawyer, as they returned to the study, where the patient had sunk into the deep sleep produced by the drug the doctor had administered; the terribly potent chemical he had also taken having exhausted its strength. "Nothing can be better than this," said Doctor Lawrence. "And now, if you people will all go to bed, it will be the kindest thing for my patient." "But he must not be left," said Gertrude in a quiet, decided tone. "He is not going to be left," replied the doctor. "I shall stop with him, and if anybody is needed I will soon call some one." "But you must have some one to sit up with you, Mr Lawrence," said Mrs Hampton. "Yes; I will sit up with him," cried Saul eagerly. "It was not my fault, but I feel a little guilty about his being so ill; and it is too late to go back to town." "Very well," said the doctor quietly, "you can sit up with me;" and they kept vigil by the young man's side. CHAPTER FIFTEEN. FRIENDLY ADVICE. It was a fortnight before the sufferer was about again, and during that period Gertrude had begun to look more hopefully upon her future, for, though peevish and fretful to a degree, Mr George Harrington, so Mrs Hampton said, showed the better side of his character. Saul came twice a week to see the invalid, and at the end of the fortnight was down at The Mynns and out in the garden with him. "If that confounded, meddling old doctor had left me alone, Saul, old fellow, I should have been all right after a good sleep." "Doubtful," said Saul, smiling. "Well, nearly all right. I suppose I had been having a little too much." "Little! I should have been sorry to have taken half." "Ah, well, never mind that. I'm all right again now, only I feel as if I should like to prosecute that chemist for his blunder." "He deserves it," said Saul; "but you couldn't do anything. It was an accident, that's all." "But, confound the man! he swears, so Lawrence says, that he made the prescription up quite correctly." "Perhaps your system will not bear the particular drug he prescribed." "My system won't bear molten lead poured into it," said the young man tartly. "Hang it! I felt as if I was being burned up." "You recollect the sensations, then?" "Recollect! Why, it sobered me in an instant, and I felt all the time as if the end had come." "But it had not, my dear old fellow," cried Saul enthusiastically. "And as soon as the doctor gives you leave, we'll have a snug, quiet little dinner together somewhere, and forget all the past." "No," said the other quietly, "I must settle down now, and drop all this fast life. I've got to mend and marry little Gertrude." Saul's countenance changed. "Hallo! what's the matter? You haven't taken a dose of the doctor's medicine, have you?" "I? No; absurd!" "Why, you look as white as chalk."