ABOUT BUYING A HORSE. i8r 



mime." He entreats Boodells to join him in a comic scene, 

 just to '' cheer me up." I smile languidly. I feel I cannot 

 enter into the spirit of his fun. I would prefer reading a 

 grave philosophical treatise on Fortuitotis Atoms, and 

 dropping off to sleep. 



Cazell arives. After him Englemore, who, on entering the 

 room, salutes me with, "■' Hallo, Colonel ! Invalided ?" 



Really I never had so much excitement when I was in the 

 best possible health. Its quite an " At Home." 



Cazell scrutinises me. He knows at once what it is, and 

 what I ought to do. " My dear fellow/' he answers, on 

 hearing my symptoms, " that's liver. That cough isn't from 

 cold only ; it's liver." 



Boodells becomes interested, and cuts in with the remark 

 that it seems to him like biliousness. " I'm a very bilious 

 subject," he adds, speaking of himself, " and I'm often like 

 that." 



Cazell won't give in. He won't hear of biliousness. Liver, 

 he says, is the cause of it all. " My dear boy," he argues, 

 " I ought to know. I studied medicine for two years." 



"And were obliged to leave off directly you began to 

 practise it," says Milburd. " Eh ? " 



Everyone thinks this observation ill-timed. 



It suddenly occurs to me that if Cazell is right, my doctor, 

 who calls it " a violent cold, and just a touch of slight bron- 

 chitis," is wrong. Boodells is all attention— really interested 

 in Cazell's dissertation ; and Milburd, finding his jokes at a 

 discount, assumes the air of a serious inquirer. Englemore 

 shakes his head, and is understood to suggest "Mister 



