As we walked away he asked my name and profession, and I thought he smiled with peculiar satisfaction when I said I was a student of medicine.
“Oh, indeed!” he said; “well—we shall see. But here we are. This is the house of my good friend Dobson. City man—capital fellow, like all City men—ahem! He has put his house at my disposal at this very trying period of my existence.”
“But are you sure, Dr McTougall, that all the household is saved?” I asked, becoming more thoroughly awake to the tremendous reality of the scene through which I had just passed.
“Sure! my good fellow, d’you think I’d be talking thus quietly to you if I were not sure? Yes, thanks to you and the firemen, under God, there’s not a hair of their heads injured.”
“Are you—I beg pardon—are you quite sure? Have you seen Miss McTougall since she—”
“Miss McTougall!” exclaimed the doctor, with a laugh. “D’you mean my little Jenny by that dignified title?”
“Well, of course, I did not know her name, and she is not very large; but I brought her down the shoot with such violence that—”
An explosion of laughter from the doctor stopped me as I entered a large library, the powerful lights of which at first dazzled me.
“Here, Dobson, let me introduce you to the man who has saved my whole family, and who has mistaken Miss Blythe for my Jenny!—Why, sir,” he continued, turning to me, “the bundle you brought down so unceremoniously is only my governess. Ah! I’d give twenty thousand pounds down on the spot if she were only my daughter. My Jenny will be a lucky woman if she grows up to be like her.”
“I congratulate you, Mr Mellon,” said the City man, shaking me warmly by the hand.