It was not often Ernie drew his sword. Now he knew no mercy.
"You can," he retorted. "He won't believe you."
CHAPTER XLVIII
TWO MEETINGS
After thirty years of following the wagon, Colonel Lewknor and his wife had returned home from India on a pittance of a pension.
There was a grandson now, and that grandson had to be sent to Eton like his father and his grandfather before him. Mrs. Lewknor was determined upon that. But the grandson's father was only a Captain in the Indian Army; ways and means had to be found; and openings are not many in modern life for a retired couple on the wrong side of fifty.
Then the Colonel's health became uncertain, and he was sent down to Trupp of Beachbourne.
While there Mrs. Lewknor caught influenza, and Mr. Trupp attended both.
A delightful intimacy sprang up between the three. The Colonel's sardonic humour and detached outlook upon life appealed to the great surgeon almost as much as did Mrs. Lewknor's experience and width of view to his wife.
Mr. Trupp attended his patients once a day for a fortnight.