“Well,” he said, balancing the glasses skilfully by throwing back his head, “and how are you? And what can I do for you? There's no external evidence of trouble. You're looking lean and a little pale, but thoroughly fit.”
“Yes,” said the late bishop, “I'm fairly fit—”
“Only—?” said the doctor, smiling his teeth, with something of the manner of an old bathing woman who tells a child to jump.
“Well, I'm run down and—worried.”
“We'd better sit down,” said the great doctor professionally, and looked hard at him. Then he pulled at the arm of a chair.
The ex-bishop sat down, and the doctor placed himself between his patient and the light.
“This business of resigning my bishopric and so forth has involved very considerable strains,” Scrope began. “That I think is the essence of the trouble. One cuts so many associations.... I did not realize how much feeling there would be.... Difficulties too of readjusting one's position.”
“Zactly. Zactly. Zactly,” said the doctor, snapping his face and making his glasses vibrate. “Run down. Want a tonic or a change?”
“Yes. In fact—I want a particular tonic.”
Dr. Brighton-Pomfrey made his eyes and mouth round and interrogative.