“In her present highly nervous condition,” he went on, “the little excitement of this visit has proved too much for her. I shall drive over to the hospital and fetch a nurse—”
“A nurse!” cried the young man. “Then she’s—”
“There is absolutely no occasion for alarm, as I told you before. A few days’ rest and quiet—”
“Look here, sir!” said Captain Grey. “It seems to me—I’ve no wish to be offensive, or anything of that sort, but it seems right to me”—he paused for a moment—“to get a second opinion.”
“I shouldn’t advise it,” replied the doctor blandly.
“Possibly not, sir; but perhaps you would be willing to oblige me to that extent. I don’t want to insist—”
“I wouldn’t, if I were you.”
There was a faint flush on the young man’s dark face.
“Nevertheless—” he began, but again the doctor interrupted him.
“My dear young man,” he said, “you oblige me to be frank. I should have preferred a discreet silence; but as you are obviously determined to make the matter as difficult as possible, you must hear the truth. For some years your sister has been addicted to the use of certain drugs. When I discovered this, I set about trying to cure the addiction. You probably have no idea what that means. I venture to say that there is nothing—absolutely nothing—more difficult in the entire field of medicine. I have been working on the case for more than a year, and I have made distinct progress; but it will be some time before the cure is completed, and I can assure you that it never will be unless I am left undisturbed. There is no other man now living who can do what I am doing.”