MR. HARTOPP (feelingly).--“Your little girl in a bad way! Oh, no; doctors always exaggerate in order to get more credit for the cure. Not that I would disparage Dr. Gill, fellow-townsman, first-rate man. Still ‘t is the way with doctors to talk cheerfully if one is in danger, and to look solemn if there is nothing to fear.” WAIFE.--“DO you think so: you have children of your own, sir?--of her age, too?--Eh! eh!” MR. HARTOPP.--“Yes; I know all about children,--better, I think, than Mrs. H. does. What is the complaint?” WAIFE.--“The doctor says it is low fever.” MR. HARTOPP.--“Caused by nervous excitement, perhaps.” WAIFE (looking up).--“Yes: that’s what he says,--nervous excitement.” MR. HARTOPP.--“Clever sensitive children, subjected precociously to emulation and emotion, are always liable to such maladies. My third girl, Anna Maria, fell, into a low fever, caused by nervous excitement in trying for school prizes.” WATFE.--“Did she die of it, sir?” MR. HARTOPP (shuddering).--“Die! no! I removed her from school, set her to take care of the poultry, forbade all French exercises, made her take English exercises instead, and ride on a donkey. She’s quite another thing now, cheeks as red as an apple, and as firm as a cricket-ball.” WAIFE.--“I will keep poultry; I will buy a donkey. Oh, sir! you don’t think she will go to heaven yet, and leave me here?” MR. HARTOPP.--“Not if you give her rest and quiet. But no excitement, no exhibitions.” WAIFE (emptying his pockets on the table).--“Will you kindly count that money, sir? Don’t you think that would be enough to find her some pretty lodgings hereabouts till she gets quite strong again? With green fields,--she’s fond of green fields and a farm-yard with poultry,--though we were lodging a few days ago with a good woman who kept hens, and Sophy did not seem to take to them much. A canary bird is more of a companion, and--” HARTOPP (interrupting).--“Ay--ay--and you! what would you do?” WAIFE.--“Why, I and the dog would go away for a little while about the country.” HARTOPP.--“Exhibiting?” WAIFE.--“That money will not last forever, and what can we do, I and the dog, in order to get more for her?” HARTOPP (pressing his hand warmly).--“You are a good man, sir. I am sure of it; you cannot have done things which you should be afraid to tell me. Make me your confidant, and I may then find some employment fit for you, and you need not separate yourself from your little girl.” WAIFE.--“Separate from her! I should only leave her for a few days at a time till she gets well. This money would keep her,--how long? Two months? three? how long? the doctor would not charge much.” HARTOPP.--“YOU will not confide in me then? At your age,--have you no friends,--no one to speak a good word for you?” WAIFE (jerking up his head with a haughty air).--“So--so! Who talks to you about me, sir? I am speaking of my innocent child. Does she want a good word spoken for her? Heaven has written it in her face.”