Mrs. L. Not a wink.
Jenny. Not a wink? Bad, bad! Any appetite?
Mrs. L. Not a bit.
Jenny. Not a bit? Bad, bad! Madam, yours is a very bad case.
Mrs. L. Oh, do, doctor, tell me the worst!
Jenny. Madam, you are suffering from a terrible disease,—a disease of which the profession know but little. Hum-buga; a disease caused by a depression of the eliminating vesticubia of the scareophagus. Had you fallen into the hands of the masculine butchers of the medical profession, your fate would have been terrible; but we of the new school are destined to lay bare new fountains of health. I propose to treat your case by an entirely new method; one that is destined to make a great revolution in medicine. The Lionian Method,—I will briefly explain. You, madam, are suffering from prostration,—a superabundance of weakness. In your case, madam, it is necessary to throw off this superabundance of weakness; but how to supply the vacuum? What is needed? You see at once: strength. But where shall we find strength?—in the mineral world? No. In the vegetable world? No. Where shall we turn? To the animal world, and there we find strength; and where greater strength than in the lion, the king of beasts? There is our remedy. Madam, I prescribe for you a lion diet. Lion steaks for breakfast, roast lion for dinner, cold lion for supper; and lion broth, lion soup, and lion fricassees promiscuously. Obey me, and you are saved; hesitate, and you are lost.
Mrs. L. Dear me! but where shall I get the lions?
Jenny. That’s none of my business. I prescribe the mode; you must find the means. You are rich; send and catch them. I would recommend your keeping a few live lions in your back garden, that you may have them fresh at all times.
Mrs. L. Lions in our back garden? Mercy! we should be eaten alive!
Aunt M. Lions? What! turn our back garden into a howling wilderness?