Mrs. Roper is a sullen-eyed lady with very many chins. She is, vide her shop sign, a dealer in antiques, and, to quote the same authority, old metal, old teeth, old glass and china, and every variety of new and second-hand wearing apparel are bought and sold by her. She is not the cleanest woman in London, nor is her shop the cleanest in Bovingdon Street. But there is charm in the variety and abundance of Mrs. Roper's assets, which are the working parts, as it were, of our complex civilisation, amongst which tokens Mrs. Roper is always sitting, silently, mournfully, by day and night, like a lonely widow on a coral reef, surrounded by mementoes of a shipwreck.
I hastened to reply with civility to Mrs. Roper's question, for that lady had just sold to me for ninepence an ancient brass tobacco jar, which expert opinion has since valued at half a guinea.
"Then," said Mrs. Roper, "I will thank you to send the doctor round 'ere. Tell 'im that the stuff what 'e calls medicine is makin' me worse."
"Madam," said I, thinking rather of my benefactress than of my friend, "the doctor is outside now. Shall I——?"
"I thought I seed the shadder of 'is 'at," said Mrs. Roper; "call 'im in."
I called the doctor, as directed, and he came in with a brisk and cheerful air, kicking me brutally upon the shin in passing. I then, very naturally, prepared to retire; but Mrs. Roper held me back.
"You needn't run away, young man," she said. "I ain't ashamed for anybody to 'ear my sufferings.... Doctor, what's to be done about me? I'm very ill."
"Where?" said Dr. Brink, a little brusquely.
"It's a funny question for a doctor to ask," responded Mrs. Roper. "I thought we paid you to find things out. But we do not want to waste each other's time, and so I'll tell you.
"What's the matter with me is that I'm dying. That yellow medicine what you sent me 'as brought the pains on worse than ever. You will 'ave to try me with some red. Not that I look to that or any other doctor's stuff to cure me now. Nothing can't cure me now. I've been neglected too long. The on'y thing I got to look forward to now is me little wooden ulster. It'll be a great pleasure to some people, I know, the day the undertaker comes to measure me for it. What are you laughin' at?"