“But he will be better soon?”
“He is better now, my child; and it will, perhaps, be a lesson to him,” he added to the lawyer, as they returned to the study, where the patient had sunk into the deep sleep produced by the drug the doctor had administered; the terribly potent chemical he had also taken having exhausted its strength.
“Nothing can be better than this,” said Doctor Lawrence. “And now, if you people will all go to bed, it will be the kindest thing for my patient.”
“But he must not be left,” said Gertrude in a quiet, decided tone.
“He is not going to be left,” replied the doctor. “I shall stop with him, and if anybody is needed I will soon call some one.”
“But you must have some one to sit up with you, Mr Lawrence,” said Mrs Hampton.
“Yes; I will sit up with him,” cried Saul eagerly. “It was not my fault, but I feel a little guilty about his being so ill; and it is too late to go back to town.”
“Very well,” said the doctor quietly, “you can sit up with me;” and they kept vigil by the young man’s side.