He looked yellow enough to be on the verge of an attack of jaundice when he came across me.
"Hallo, Martin!" he cried, "I am delighted to see you, my boy. I've been a little out of sorts lately; but I would not let Johanna send for your father. He does very well to go dawdling after women, and playing with their pulses, but I don't want him dawdling after me. Tell me what you have to say about me, my lad."
He went on to tell me his symptoms, while a sudden idea struck me almost like a flash of genius.
I am nothing of a genius; but at that time new thoughts came into my mind with wonderful rapidity. It was positively necessary that I should run over to Sark this week—I had given my word to Miss Ollivier that I would do so—but I dared not mention such a project at home. My mother and Julia would be up in arms at the first syllable I uttered.
What if I could do two patients good at one stroke, kill two birds with one stone? Captain Carey had a pretty little yacht lying idle in St. Sampson's Harbor, and a day's cruising would do him all the good in the world. Why should he not carry me over to Sark, when I could visit my other patient, and nobody be made miserable by the trip?
"I will make you up some of your old medicine," I said, "but I strongly recommend you to have a day out on the water; seven or eight hours at any rate. If the weather keeps as fine as it is now, it will do you a world of good."
"It is so dreary alone," he objected, "and Johanna would not care to go out at this season, I know."
"If I could manage it," I said, deliberating, "I should be glad to have a day with you."
"Ah! if you could do that!" he replied, eagerly.
"I'll see about it," I said. "Should you mind where you sailed to?"