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Mr. Carruthers hadMOVING ON. 97been excessively alarmedwhen he first realised the nature of his wife'sillness. He had never comein contact yvith anythingof the kind, and novelty of any descriptionhad a tendency to alarm and disconcert MrCarruthers of Poynings. But he was not in theleast likely to leave any manifest duty undone,ancl he had devoted himself, with all the intelligencehe possessed (which was not much), and allthe heart (yvhich was a great deal more than heor anybody else suspected), to the care, attention,ancl "humouring" yvhich the patient required.From the first, Mrs. Carruthers had been ableto recognise this without trying to account for it,and she unconsciously adopted the best possiblemethod of dealing yvith a disposition like that ofher husband. She evinced the most absolutedependence on him, an almost fretful eagernessfor his presence, an entire forgetfulness of theformer supposed immutable law yvhich had decreedthat the convenience ancl the pleasure ofMr. Carruthers of Poynings were to take precedence,as a matter of course, of all othersublunary things. Indeed, it was merely in aVOL.III.H