And away goes the vehicle, turns the corner, and disappears from view in
the avenue.
PENDELL chuckles to himself. "Quite a character," I hear him murmuring.
Then, after a short laugh, he exclaims almost fondly, "Old RUDDOCK! ha!
ha! Rum old fellow."
And so we go in. And this has been the long-expected "Nicht wi'
RUDDOCK." He hasn't said twenty words. Certainly not one worth hearing.
Yet PENDELL seems perfectly satisfied with him, and years hence, I dare
say, this occasion will be recounted as a night when Old RUDDOCK was at
his best. After this, how about SHERIDAN?
_Next morning._--My friend, MISS STRAITHMERE, is coming at two o'clock.
I find that I can leave, _via_ Launceston, at eleven. I am not well. I
can't help it. I begin to consider, is it my nature to be ill? No, I
must go up to town, and consult my Doctor.
Adieu, Penwiffle. If I stopped, I feel that in the wilds of Cornwall,
out at Tintagel or at Land's End, or in a slate quarry, or down a mine,
I should.... Well, I don't know but I should have to answer the
question, "Why?"
My present idea is to live in London, about two miles from the British
Museum. Then I can walk there every morning, and work in the library at
my _Analytical History of Motion_.
If the Doctor agrees with me, and if this plan agrees with me, I shall
continue it; if not, I must take to boxing, gymnastics, or other violent
exercise.
* * * * *
The Doctor _does_ agree with me. He advises me to try my own
prescription. In a week's time to call on him again, and go on calling
on him regularly every Monday.
* * * * *
I have taken lodgings three doors from my Doctor's house. I shall make
no further notes, unless, at some future time, I commence a history of a
British Constitution (my own). And so, for the present, I conclude, with
a quotation from SHAKSPEARE, who was, among other things, evidently a
valetudinarian, and finish these papers by saying,
"The tenor of them doth but signify"
"My Health."
_Two Gent. of Verona._ Act iii. sc. 1.
[Illustration: "ON THE TOP OF THE HILL, TOO!"]
"MY TIRESOME HAT! _SO_ KIND OF YOU, MR. MUGGLES! YOU DON'T MIND WAITING
FOR ME, DO YOU?"
[_Don't he, though! He minds very much. Feels very foolish, and
dreads being chaffed--particularly by some of those fellows
below!_]