“But, confound the man! he swears, so Lawrence says, that he made the prescription up quite correctly.”
“Perhaps your system will not bear the particular drug he prescribed.”
“My system won’t bear molten lead poured into it,” said the young man tartly. “Hang it! I felt as if I was being burned up.”
“You recollect the sensations, then?”
“Recollect! Why, it sobered me in an instant, and I felt all the time as if the end had come.”
“But it had not, my dear old fellow,” cried Saul enthusiastically. “And as soon as the doctor gives you leave, we’ll have a snug, quiet little dinner together somewhere, and forget all the past.”
“No,” said the other quietly, “I must settle down now, and drop all this fast life. I’ve got to mend and marry little Gertrude.”
Saul’s countenance changed.
“Hallo! what’s the matter? You haven’t taken a dose of the doctor’s medicine, have you?”
“I? No; absurd!”