"I don't feel very well, child."
"If you would but stay at home for a day or two and nurse yourself!"
"Ah! I have not time. There's a great deal of sickness about, and my patients must not be neglected."
"Mark Cray can attend to them."
"To the light cases he could. Not the serious ones; I wouldn't trust them to him."
"Not trust them to him?" echoed Sara.
The surprised tone of the question aroused Dr. Davenal; he had spoken out too heedlessly his real thoughts. "People dangerously ill have naturally more confidence in me than in a young man," he said, by way of doing away with the impression his avowal might make.
They took their places at the breakfast-table, neither of then able to eat; the doctor from sickness of body, for he was really ill, Sara from sickness of mind.
"Aunt Bettina, I tell papa he ought not to go out today."
"Not going out today?" repeated Miss Bettina. "Why not? What's he going to do, then?"