This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
88
THE SEMI-DETACHED HOUSE.

have magnified into a bête noir. Instead of which I have been sedulously at play with Charlie this last hour."

"And who is Charlie?" said the kind-hearted physician, taking the child's little wasted hand in his, and looking at him attentively. He could not see a sick child without trying to help it.

"He is the grandchild of my next door neighbour," and Blanche detailed the adventures of the preceding day, ending with an animated description of the magnificent Baroness.

"I know her," he said, "she is always sending for me, because she has nothing the matter with her, and I have not yet succeeded in curing her of her good health. And now, I have a valuable document for you, which I have persuaded Mrs. Armistead to give me." It was an extract from a letter of Mr. Armistead's, in which he said that their Prussian negotiation was nearly at an end, that he might come home any day, "but I think of taking a look at Dresden and Vienna,