"Oh, if that be the case, the sooner we send for a straight jacket the better!" said the doctor. "But, eh! what! by Jove, it's the young Scotch rascal who was making love to my daughter!"
"Dr Morgan!" I cried. "Upon my honour, sir, I am quite annoyed"——
"Hallo! what's this? We are calm enough now. Answer me directly, sir; are you delirious or not?"
"No more than yourself, doctor."
"This, then, was a concerted trick to make a fool of me!" sputtered the Welsh Esculapius. "But I'll be revenged. I'll have you before a magistrate for this, you villain!"
"Upon my honour, sir, I am perfectly innocent. If you'll only hear me for a single moment"——
"To be exposed before the whole town of Shrewsbury, too! I'll never forgive it!" and the doctor banged out of the room. To his dismay he found himself face to face with Cutts, who, along with the Boots, had been a delighted auditor of the scene.
"How is our patient, doctor?" said the Saxon, "Is our pulse good to-night? Did we take a look at our tongue?"
"Sir, you're a ruffian!" roared the doctor.
"Oh, come—we must be calm; it will never do to discompose ourselves. Take a glass of brandy and water, doctor, and we'll drink success to the profession. What! you won't, eh? Well then, Boots, you take one and I'll finish the other. Here is Doctor Morgan's very good health," cried Cutts, advancing to the head of the stairs, "and may he long continue to be an ornament to his profession!"