When Stillwater, the following morning, confided to the noted medical authority that he intended to take his whole family on a sailing voyage to Japan, adding the clause, "We're going to have a real good time," he sank back in his chair, and regarded Stillwater with an expression of patient endurance.
"I thought I had impressed on you, Mr. Stillwater, the necessity of absolute rest and quiet. Rest and quiet; do you understand me?"
"Perfectly! Perfectly! That's what I'm laying my plans for. Three months on a sailing vessel—"
"With your entire family, which includes—?"
"My wife, my daughter, and my mother-in-law."
"A wife, a daughter, and a mother-in-law. None of them deaf or dumb, I presume?"
"Ha, ha, ha! Now you needn't be afraid I shan't have cheerful company. They'll make things hum, I tell you!"
"I don't doubt it for a minute. Mr. Stillwater, I strongly advise this trip without your family. With your family I am as strongly against it. To be confined for three months on a sailing vessel with a wife, a daughter, and a mother-in-law, would be enough to derange any man's nerves, allowing he is perfectly normal when he starts. Now, the consequences in your condition—"
"Now, doctor, you're not sure of your ground. You don't know my family. They're devoted to me."
"Of course," said the Noted Authority, smiling blandly. "That is the trouble."