"Directly, dear mees. May I take off the coats first, here at the fire?"
The coats removed, the doctor warmed his thin, dark hands before the blaze, casting curious glances about him, from behind the green goggles, as Molly rather felt than saw.
"Now, then, we are ready, if you please," said Dr. Schwarz suddenly; and Molly led the way into the bedroom, where the invalid was eagerly expecting him. Standing silently beside her mother, the girl listened intelligently to the clear questioning, the rapid conclusions, the assured diagnosis, of the new physician, and settled in her own mind that here was a very different, a much more advanced, practitioner than Dr. Crake at the Corners, or even Dr. Pilsbury, the magnate of New Bedford, for whom her father had sent before arriving at home.
"It is rheumatic fever that attacks your mother, mees, and danger of the lungs also," said the doctor, rising from his seat beside the bed, and leading the way into the kitchen, where Humphrey Wilder impatiently awaited his verdict.
"Danger of inflammation of the lungs, do you mean?" asked he, catching the last words.
"Yes, my friend. She should be watched for the next two days or so, very carefully."
"By a doctor, do you mean, sir?" asked Molly.
"Precisely, mees. It may save a life to her, to receive certain remedies in season."
"And cannot you remain with us for the space of two days?" asked Wilder anxiously. "I will pay you any thing in reason for your time and pains."
