“No—I will walk. Poor beast! He has done enough for one day, and shall not be taken out again.”
“Horse-flesh is not so precious as man-flesh,” Constance smiled entreatingly, as she laid her hand upon my shoulder. “Let Tom be harnessed up; it won't hurt him.”
“The merciful man is merciful to his beast,” I made answer. “If horse-flesh is cheaper than man-flesh, like most cheap articles, it is less enduring. Tom must rest, if his master cannot.”
“The decision is final, I suppose.”
“I must say yes.”
“I hardly think your great coat is dry yet,” said my wife. “I had it hung before the kitchen fire. Let me see.”
“You must wait for ten, or fifteen minutes longer,” she remarked, on returning from the kitchen. “One sleeve was completely wetted through, and I have turned it in order to get the lining dry.”
I sat down and took Agnes on my lap, and was just getting into a pleasant talk with her, when the door-bell rung. A shadow fell across my wife's face.
“People are thoughtless of Doctors,” she remarked, a little fretfully, “and often choose the worst weather and the most untimely seasons to send for them.”
I did not answer, but listened as the boy went to the door. Some one was admitted, and shown into the office.