'Whisper to him, Parcels,' said Aster, one of the junior assistants, who made his brightness particularly apparent in perpetrating puns upon the Roman vernacular, 'whisper him, by way of consolation and encouragement,
'Non, si male nunc, et olim
Sic erit.'
'That is, I suppose, 'If you are ill now, it is no sign you will be sick by-and-by.''
'Yes; and nothing could be more inspiring.'
'Poor dog, it is true he is likely to be as much benefitted by that as any thing else; but I will not trifle with his sufferings, even in seeming.'
'Cur nodus—why not? What will you do?'
'I will help, and then——'
'Soothe him by mild language. No, let Nature speak out her agony in his cries, and let the surgeon utter his sympathy as best becomes him, and as the welfare of his patient demands.'
'In jests?'