Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/54

 They were all delighted with it, and happiness seemed restored to its inmates.

October 25.—The very day on which my family came up, Lady Hester took to her bed from illness, and never quitted it until March in the following year. She had now laboured under pulmonary catarrh for six or seven years, which, subsiding in the summer months, returned every winter, with increased violence, and at this time presented some very formidable symptoms.

November 9.—About six o'clock, just as I had dined, a servant came to say that her ladyship wished to see me. On going into her bed-room, which, as usual, was but faintly lighted, I ran my head against a long packthread, which crossed from the wall, where it was tied, to her bed, and was held in her hand. "Take care, doctor," said she; "these stupid beasts can't understand what I want: but you must help me. I want to pull out a tooth. I have tied a string to it and to the wall: and you, with a stick or something, must give it a good blow, so as to jerk my tooth out."

Knowing her disposition, I said, "Very well, and that I would do as she wished. But, if you like," added I, "to have it extracted secundem artem, I fancy I can do it for you."—"Oh! doctor, have you nerve enough? and, besides, I don't like those crooked