“What do they wish?” said the leech after quite a pause.
“That you will take them for employer instead of this vagabond; accept such compensation for your professional services as they are accustomed to pay; and then, in the interest of science, suspend for a little your way of treating this case in favor of the one you have just abandoned. We will assume all responsibilities. If the experiment does not work well, you can return to the old treatment. You had better have the patronage of the Alabarch and the Egyptian primate than that of this scoundrel—for such he is, unless his looks greatly belie him.”
“I have no very high opinion of him, I confess,” said the leech. “I have seen more tender husbands than he; and the woman’s talk about him in her delirium is far from complimentary. But if we change the treatment he will be troublesome. He was very violent when he discovered the first change.”
“Did he tell you by whose authority it was made?”
“He only said that a strange man had been meddling with what did not concern him.”
“Then he did not tell you that this meddler was Seti?”
“Certainly not.”
“Nor did the nurse?”
“No—but she is mortally afraid of the man, and that may have kept her silent.”
“Nor did the young lady?”