If a lady could rout
us, however, it was not permitted to a man. When another of these
aristocratic invalids, one of those "four giant shows under one canvas,"
came along, varying in sex from the first mentioned, he was speedily
brought to grief. At supper, the first evening of his arrival, one of
our circle having asked him with incautious politeness "how he was?"
the new arrival opened on us with a sonorous discourse filled with
chronic afflictions mixed up with pious reflections. I think he would
have established his claims to high rank had not a consumptive-looking
boarder with a haggard face taken advantage of a pause in the speech,
and without looking up from his plate, remarked in a squeaky voice,
"The remainder of the service will be concluded at the grave." The
interruption was a bombshell. I have said that there is a free-masonry
among invalids; I might add that it almost amounts to the old
co-operation plan. I have been offered advice without limit and even
medicine from my fellow sufferers. I have also been furnished with a
list of their own attending physicians, all of whom have performed
remarkable cures. It is a full and complete list of fifty-eight
physicians in good professional standing, and I will dispose of it at
a moderate compensation to any apothecary or undertaker who desires
to purchase.
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