There was only one way--by applying to his friend Bootle. It was a disagreeable necessity, but Philip saw no help for it. Bootle was rich and generous, and would lend him the money in a moment. It would only be needed for a few days. The very first cheque he drew, after coming into that twelve hundred pounds, should be one to repay Freddy.
And, thus easily settling his difficulties, Mr. Philip finished up by vowing to himself that he would never touch a card again.
[CHAPTER XI.]
A VISIT FROM MRS. CARLYON
Dr. Spreckley felt like an angry man. When he read Squire Denison's curt note--curt as to the part of his dismissal--his first impulse was to go up to the Hall and demand an explanation from his old friend and patient. He had been forced into a corner as it were, had been driven into telling a certain disagreeable truth, and now he was discarded for having done so, and a young practitioner of less experience and no note, was taken on in his place! It was very unjust. But Dr. Spreckley never did anything in a hurry. He put the Squire's note away, saying, "I'll sleep upon it."
On the morrow he found that Dr. Jago was really in attendance on the Squire. Dr. Spreckley met him on his way thither in a hired one-horse fly, and received a gracious wave of the hand by way of greeting. "I'll not interfere," exploded the old Doctor in the bitterness of his heart; "I'll never darken Denison's doors again. Unless he sends for me," he added a minute later. "And for all the good he can do him"--with a contemptuous glance after Jago--"that won't be long first."
Meanwhile, at the Hall, the Squire was soothing and explaining the change to Ella, who regarded it with dismay.
"I don't like Dr. Jago, Uncle Gilbert. And Dr. Spreckley was our friend of many years."
"And why don't you like Dr. Jago, lassie?"
"I don't know. There's something about him that repels me; it lies in his eyes, I think. I never spoke to him but once."