'But, doctor,' she said, with her apron up to ner eyes, 'you ain't going to leave him, are you?'
Dr. Thorne did not find it easy to explain to her ladyship that medical etiquette would not permit him to remain in attendance on her husband, after he had been dismissed and another physician called in his place.
'Etiquette!' said she, crying. 'What's etiquette to do with it when a man is a-killing hisself with brandy?'
'Fillgrave will forbid that quite as strongly as I can do.'
'Fillgrave!' said she. 'Fiddlestick! Fillgrave, indeed!'
Dr. Thorne could almost have embraced her for the strong feeling of thorough confidence on the one side, and thorough distrust on the other, which she contrived to throw into those few words.
'I'll tell you what, doctor; I won't let the messenger go. I'll bear the brunt of it. He can't do much now he ain't up, you know. I'll stop the boy; we won't have no Fillgraves here.'
This, however, was a step to which Dr. Thorne would not assent. He endeavoured to explain to the anxious wife, that after what had passed he could not tender his medical services till they were again asked for.
'But you can slip in as a friend, you know; and then by degrees you can come round him, eh? can't you now, doctor? And as to the payment—'
All that Dr. Thorne said on the subject may easily be imagined. And in this way, and in partaking of the lunch which was forced upon him, an hour had nearly passed between his leaving Sir Roger's bedroom and putting his foot into the stirrup. But no sooner had the cob begun to move on the gravel-sweep before the house, than one of the upper windows opened, and the doctor was summoned to another conference with the sick man.
'He says you are to come back, whether or no,' said Mr. Winterbones, screeching out of the window, and putting all his emphasis on the last words.
'Thorne! Thorne! Thorne!' shouted the sick man from his sick-bed, so loudly that the doctor heard him, seated as he was on horseback out before the house.
'You're to come back, whether or no,' repeated Winterbones, with more emphasis, evidently conceiving that there was a strength of injunction in that 'whether or no' which would be found quite invincible.
Whether actuated by these magic words, or by some internal process of thought, we will not say; but the doctor did slowly, and as though unwillingly, dismount again from his steed, and slowly retrace his steps into the house.
