"Maybe when Master Ned's married and away Mrs. Baskerville will go easier."
"Don't think I'm grumbling. She's a kind woman, but, like all old married folk, seem to think young married folk be only playing at it. The truth is that I haven't got enough to do for the minute."
Mr. Baskerville returned in half an hour, and Rupert walked beside him. Then, with some silent suffering, the old man alighted, and a boy took the pony to its stable.
"Doctor was out," he said, "so I'll have to trouble you to make up a bit of your ointment after all."
"And so I will," answered Susan. "And if you'd gone to that Gollop woman for the beastliness she pretends will cure everything, I'd never have forgiven you. She helped to kill off your brother, no doubt, but that's no reason why you should give her a chance to kill you."
"You're all alike," he said; "a jealous generation. But if you can have your physic ready in an hour, so much the better; then Rupert shall give my back a good rub before he goes."
Mrs. Hacker was doubtful.
"Better I do it," she said. "'Tis the way it's rubbed in makes the cure."
"He's stronger and can rub harder," answered the patient.
"Uncle Nathan's none too grand, neither," declared his nephew. "Won't say what's amiss, but I do think he's not all he might be. I asked Mrs. Lintern, who knows more about him than anybody, I reckon, and she told me 'twas nothing much in her opinion—only his throat a bit queer."