“Whenever I move there are excruciating pains in my right side.”
“We must look into that. Mrs. Carter, you will please retire. By the way, please send me one of Mr. Carter’s night-shirts. We will now undress you,” said he to the Don, “and see what’s wrong with that right side of yours. Then we shall tuck you away snugly in bed, and you will wake up to-morrow a new man.”
“Thanks,” said the Don, smiling in sympathy with the cheerful tone of his physician.
The examination over, the doctor wrote his prescriptions, and, before taking his leave, suggested that one of us should sit up with the patient, as his flightiness was likely to return during the night, while the other made himself comfortable on a lounge till he was needed as a relief. Giving us his final directions, he left the room; but no sooner had he emerged into the upper hall than he was surrounded by Mrs. Carter and the three girls, Mary having decided to pass the night with her friends.
“Is he badly hurt?”
“Yes, badly.”
“Dangerously?”
“His body is black and blue; there is an ugly lump on the back of his head, and—”
“And what?”
“He has three ribs broken.”