“Not sorry?” she replied.
“Well, of course, my dear, I am awfully sorry about the way in which Arthur is missing; but as to myself, one does get very selfish in middle-age.”
“Selfish? Is this a time to talk of being selfish?” said the little lady, reproachfully.
“Well, perhaps not,” the doctor replied; “but really I’m glad I’ve got you here, Mary, for I don’t know what I should have done without you. You’re a perfect treasure.”
Mrs Doctor looked pacified, and worked harder than ever.
“Here, I generally bring you bad news,” said old, Stuart, coming in one day to see his nurse, as he called Grey, who had become a permanent dweller at the cottage, “but I’ve got some good for you this time.”
“What is it?” said the doctor. “Have they found Rosebury?”
“No; but you need not be so nervous any more, for here is a gun-boat coming up the river.”
Boom!
“There it is announcing itself,” said old Stuart, with a chuckle. “That’s the sort of thing to keep the natives in awe, a great gun like that.”