"
"That is no punishment, I am sure."
"Punishment! Am I the man to punish you? I only want to save you."
"Well, darling, it won't be the first time."
"No; but I do hope it will be the last."
CHAPTER XI.
"Sublata causa tollitur effectus." The stays being gone, and dissipation
moderated, Mrs. Staines bloomed again, and they gave one or two
unpretending little dinners at the Bijou. Dr. Staines admitted no false
friends to these. They never went beyond eight; five gentlemen, three
ladies. By this arrangement the terrible discursiveness of the fair, and
man's cruel disposition to work a subject threadbare, were controlled
and modified, and a happy balance of conversation established. Lady
Cicely Treherne was always invited, and always managed to come; for she
said, "They were the most agweeable little paaties in London, and the
host and hostess both so intewesting." In the autumn, Staines worked
double tides with the pen, and found a vehicle for medical narratives in
a weekly magazine that did not profess medicine.
This new vein put him in heart. His fees, towards the end of the year,
were less than last year, because there was no hundred-guinea fee; but
there was a marked increase in the small fees, and the unflagging pen
had actually earned him two hundred pounds, or nearly.
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