CHAPTER XXII. I APPEAL TO THE DISAGREEABLE WOMAN.
"Miss Blagden," I said when the opportunity came, "I want to interest you in a patient of mine—a gentleman to whom I was called this morning."
"Speak freely, doctor. Is there anything I can do for him?"
"Much, for he requires much. He is lying in a poor lodging-house grievously ill with a fever. He has little or no money, yet he must once have been in affluent circumstances. Without a trained nurse, and the comforts that only money can buy, I fear he will not live."
"It is a sad case. I am willing to cooperate with you. What is your patient's name?"
"Philip Douglas."
"Philip Douglas!" she exclaimed, in evident excitement. "Tell me quickly, what is his appearance?"
"He is a large man, of striking appearance, with full, dark eyes, who must in earlier days have been strikingly handsome."