Page:Cuthbert Bede--Little Mr Bouncer and Tales of College Life.djvu/258

238 "don't let your Mammy or Daddy, or any one else, know of this visit And, pray be cautious, my dear Fanny, and don't split!"

And, with. this final injunction,—which seemed to intimate that there was some danger of the young lady coming to an untimely end, after the fashion of tight dresses and unseaworthy vessels—the Patient warmly embraced the Physician (so great was his gratitude!), and the Ghost vanished.

s the patient left the room, Doctor Love rang the bell; and the affable Canary, obedient to its summons, paused in his perusal of an exciting narrative of a "Marriage in High Life,"—recorded, for the instruction and amusement of mankind, in the pages of the "Morning Toast," and slowly, but (of course!) gracefully, proceeded to place himself in communication with the gentle spirit who had evoked him from his cell.

As drifting straws will show the viewless courses of the winds, so this willingness on the part of the affable Canary demonstrated the power that Miss Fanny exercised over all who came within the range of her fascinations. For, the affable Canary, when summoned by Miss Fanny's ring, had just reached the most interesting and exciting part of the marriage narrative, wherein the Bride's dress was described in language that would have made the heart of a milliner thrill with ecstasy; and it