“It is a pity,” said Miss Dove, as she left the room to go and speak to the invalid lady upstairs, “that you did not say so at once.”
“Exactly. Your misplaced formality, doctor, is perplexing and uncalled for,” said the irritated squire, “and I think that if you had come to the point at once it would have been quite as well.”
“Don’t you worry, squire,” said the patient. “I told you before that nothing very serious had occurred.”
“Then if I go and see to the ladies, you will excuse me for a short time,” said the squire.
“Certainly,” said the aeronaut; “and I shall feel obliged if the captain will go down to the people and give Doctor Peters’s report to all who may inquire after Miss Dove and myself.”
“My dear sir!” exclaimed the doctor, as the captain left, “excuse me, but I noticed that you coupled your name in a very familiar manner with Miss Dove’s. Now, perhaps you are not aware that a gentleman has been assiduously and recently—”
“There, shut up your confounded nonsense, doctor,” cried the aeronaut, with a loud laugh; “I am quite sure that no one who may have been visiting here lately, or who may still be hanging about this neighbourhood, will have any chance with Miss Dove unless his intentions and actions are honourable.”
“My good sir,” cried the doctor, “your wound is causing an inflammatory state of the brain, I am afraid. Do be less wandering if you can, or I cannot undertake to fit you for leaving here, as you no doubt wish to do, in order to attend to your ballooning. If you keep quiet, you can leave with my approval to-morrow; but to do so you must avoid all flights of fancy that may prove exciting.”
Here the patient broke out into another fit of laughter, which brought down Miss Dove, who was delighted to hear any indication of cheerfulness.
“I was simply alluding,” said Doctor Peters, by way of explanation, “to Mr Falcon’s visits here, when this gentleman thought proper to betray feverish, if not slighting, outbursts, which I was not prepared for, Miss Dove.”