“Send and get that made up for me,” he said hastily.
Gertrude flew from the room, and the doctor hastened to help keep the patient within bounds.
“It was utter madness to leave his bed,” he said.
“Perhaps he came in search of you.”
“Impossible. He could not have known I was coming down here. Great heavens! what a state he is in.”
For at that moment, as the sick man struggled in his delirium, he heaved himself till his body formed an arch, and it was all that the three men could do to keep him upon the couch.
“Like anyone suffering from a powerful dose of strychnia,” muttered the doctor.
“What are you going to do, Lawrence?” whispered the lawyer. “Can’t you give him some narcotic that will last till you get him back to his chambers?”
“What I have sent for,” said the doctor, in a quiet, business-like way. “Mrs Hampton, we want something to form a long broad band to hold him down to the couch, without doing any harm.”
“Why not one of those long curtains?” said George Harrington, pointing to an alcove full of books.