"Once or twice a week! Why I heard that the ship fever was raging here--that the hospitals were crowded, and many of your doctors sick!" "Well, no one disputes that the hospitals are crowded--half the patients are on the floor now; and some of the assistants are sick enough!" "And your resident physician only passes through these hospitals once or twice a week--who attends to the patients?" "Oh, the young doctors of course!" "And are they experienced men?" "Some of them are graduates, almost half I should think." "And the rest?" "I suppose, all have studied a year or two." "And do these men--who have only studied a or year two--prescribe for the patients--without the advice of a superior?" "Certainly, why not? They must begin sometime, you know." "And will this poor woman, laboring as she is under an acute disease, be placed under the care of a mere student?" The clerk mused before he answered. "Let me see, number ten--yes, young Toules has charge there. It is his turn in the fever ward. He has never graduated, I believe." "And has he had no practice among fevers?" "Oh! yes, he has been three days in number ten, and one sees a good deal of fever in three days, I can tell you." The stranger turned away sick at heart. "Let me," he said, in a broken voice, "let me speak with the nurse who is to take care of the person I brought here." The clerk called to a lame pauper who was limping through the building and ordered him to summon the nurse from number ten. The old man went with difficulty up the stairs that led from the hall, and soon returned, followed by a tall dissipated-looking woman of forty, who still retained in her swollen features traces of intelligence and early refinement that redeemed them in some degree from positive brutality. A look of fierce and settled discontent lay on this woman's features, which was aggravated by the dress of dark blue that fell scant and ill-shapen around her stately figure, and was fastened tightly over the bosom with a succession of coarse horn buttons that but half filled the yawning buttonholes. This woman approached the stranger with a dogged and sullen air. "Is it you that wants me?" she said, looking earnestly at him. "That man said somebody wanted to see the nurse!" "And is this woman a nurse to the sick? Is she to have the charge of this poor lady?" questioned the stranger, turning to the clerk. "That is the nurse, and I hope she suits you, for you seem hard to please," answered the clerk, crustily. "She is one of the best women in the hospital, at any rate!" The stranger turned his eyes upon the woman with a grave and pained look. "I sent to ask your kindness for the poor lady that has just been carried to your ward," he said; "of course you are well paid by the city; but I am willing to reward you for extra care in this case!"