“No, honey. He's away in the back room busy with another patient. He can't hear.”
“Another patient? Why, Tom, you're not sick, are you—huh?”
Fanny's circumflexes were quite as circumflexible as Tom's and a thrill went down the young giant's spine.
“No, but I wish I was!”
At this juncture the man who could not hear came in with a face as grave and non-committal as the Sphinx, and the young man asked through the 'phone in brisk, cheery tones, “How are you this morning?” then added in a whisper, “He's here now.”
“Is he? Don't talk foolish then. Why, I'm not very well.”
“What's the matter?”
“I burned my eye.”
“Burned your eye! Confound it! How did you do it?”