Doctor Thomas pressed his stethoscope to her chest and back; he pressed so hard with his large, purplish ear that the stethoscope dug into her bones.
"Ow! That hurts," she protested peevishly.
"Say 'ninety-nine'!"
"Ninety-nine."
"Again, please."
"Ninety-nine."
"Again."
"Oh! Ninety-nine, ninety-nine, ninety-nine!"
For a young woman about to be twenty-one years old, Milly was behaving in an extraordinarily childish manner. The doctor looked at her reproachfully and began tapping on her back and chest with his notched and bony fingers. Tap, tap, tap, tap: Milly glanced down at his hand distastefully.
"And now say 'ninety-nine' again," he suggested.