“Certainly, Charley—if you are quite sure that you can stand it.”
“Why shouldn’t I stand it? I am quite well. I don’t even feel weak. Let us have him in here.”
Mrs. Harwood looked at Gussy and Gussy looked at the patient.
“I am very much afraid it will try him, mamma. Still, as he would hear the voices in the hall, which might excite him more——”
“Of course it would excite me more. Thanks, my kindest Gussy, though you scold me, you are always on my side.”
Here Dolff spoke from the corner in which during these séances he always took shelter.
“This is a new man,” he said. “He’s always got a different thing to suggest, and it’s very distracting—hadn’t I better see him this time?”
“I think Dolff is right,” said Mrs. Harwood.
“No,” said Meredith, “I want distraction. Let’s have him here.”
He did not omit to note the fact that Dolff retired further still into his corner as the policeman came in.