She won my love; had she proposed for stakes,
'Marriage,'—why, that 's for whist, a wiser game.
Whereat she raved at me, as losers will,
And went her way. So far the story 's known,
The remedy 's applied, no farther—which
Here 's the sick man's first honorarium for—
Posting his medicine-monger at the Club!
That being, Sir, the whole you mean my fee—
In gratitude for such munificence
I 'm bound in common honesty to spare