“Your draught has no effect at all,” said the latter, impatiently. “I ought to have been asleep by this time.”
“If your lordship will persist in tormenting yourself about a thousand and one details—”
“The devil! my dear sir, if I were not obliged to torment myself, I should not need a physician. Come, take a seat. Let us have a little quiet conversation.”
“If, instead of talking, your lordship would reflect quietly.”
“Reflect! I reflect a great deal too much as it is. It is that that makes me so feverish. No, no, let us talk, as we did last night. I fell asleep, you know, talking. You are aware, doctor, that I have resolved definitely to marry?”
“That pretty Countess Margaret?”
“Not at all; she’s a little fool. I am going to marry the stately Olga. I mean to have some Russian children.”
“They will be handsome, that is certain.”
“Yes, if my wife has good taste; for I don’t believe one word of your flatteries, doctor. My wife will not be faithful to me. What difference does it make, provided that I have an heir; provided all my hopeful relations, cousins and second cousins, are baffled and infuriated. Doctor, I insist upon living long enough to see that; do you understand? Now see to it;—remember I don’t bequeath you a single ducat. I shall pay you exorbitantly as long as I live, so as to make it your interest to do well by me; but that is all. As for my wife, I shall treat her in the same way. During my life, she shall have all the luxury, all the jewels she wants, and more and more every year. After my death, unless she has saved something, she will have nothing at all; I won’t leave her even the guardianship of her own child. Far from it; I don’t want to be poisoned.”
“You are feeding your mind on gloomy ideas, your lordship; that’s a bad diet.”