Lecount's? I wonder which is the slimiest, her heart or your back? You
hateful wretch, do you know what your mistress is? Your mistress is a
devil!"
The speckled skin under the toad's mouth mysteriously wrinkled itself,
then slowly expanded again, as if he had swallowed the words just
addressed to him. Magdalen started back in disgust from the first
perceptible movement in the creature's body, trifling as it was, and
returned to her chair. She had not seated herself again a moment too
soon. The door opened noiselessly, and Mrs. Lecount appeared once more.
"Mr. Vanstone will see you," she said, "if you will kindly wait a few
minutes. He will ring the parlor bell when his present occupation is
at an end, and he is ready to receive you. Be careful, ma'am, not to
depress his spirits, nor to agitate him in any way. His heart has been
a cause of serious anxiety to those about him, from his earliest years.
There is no positive disease; there is only a chronic feebleness--a
fatty degeneration--a want of vital power in the organ itself. His heart
will go on well enough if you don't give his heart too much to do--that
is the advice of all the medical men who have seen him.
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