"Um! Will you open your shirt? Just unbutton it here"—touching the front—"and your flannel waistcoat, if you wear one."
Mr. Halliburton bared his chest in obedience and the doctor sounded it, and then put down his ear. Apparently his ear did not serve him sufficiently, for he took a small instrument out of a drawer, placed it on the chest, and then put his ear to that, changing the position of the instrument three or four times.
"That will do," he said at length.
He turned to put up his stethoscope again, and Mr. Halliburton drew the edges of his shirt together and buttoned them.
"Why don't you wear flannel waistcoats?" asked the doctor, with quite a sharp accent, his head down in the drawer.
"I do wear them in winter; but in warm weather I leave them off. It was only last week that I discarded them."
"Was ever such folly known!" ejaculated Dr. Carrington. "One would think people were born without common sense. Half the patients who come to me say they leave off their flannels in summer! Why, it is in summer they are most needed! And this warm weather won't last either. Go home, sir, and put one on at once."
"Certainly, if you think it right," said Mr. Halliburton with a smile. "I thank you for telling me."
He took up his hat and waited. The doctor appeared to wait for him to go. "I understood at the office that you would give me a paper testifying that you had examined me," explained Mr. Halliburton.
"Ah—but I can't give it," said the doctor.