"I shall be very pleased."
As he drove away, his last look was not on Hilarie, but on the girl beside her—the girl called Molly—the nymph attendant. Some, the goddess charms; but more, the nymph attendant.
"What was she doing with all those girls?" he asked. "Making a home for them, or some such beastly nonsense, I suppose."
[CHAPTER IV.]
THE CONSULTING-ROOM.
The doctor's servant opened the door noiselessly, almost stealthily, and looked round the room.
There were half a dozen people waiting. One was an ex-colonial governor, who had been maintaining the empire with efficiency in many parts of the world for thirty years, and was now anxious to keep himself alive for a few years in the seclusion of a seaside town, if certain symptoms could be kept down. There was a middle-aged victim to gout; there was an elderly sufferer from rheumatism; there was an anæmic girl; there was a young fellow who looked the picture of health; and, sitting at one of the windows, there was a lady, richly dressed, her pale face, with delicate features of the kind which do not grow old, looking anxious and expectant.
They were all anxious and expectant: they feared the worst, and hoped the best. One looked out of window, seeing nothing; one gazed into the fireplace, not knowing whether there was a fire in it; one turned over the pages of a society journal, reading nothing; all were thinking of their symptoms. For those who wait for the physician, there is nothing in the whole world to consider except symptoms. They have got to set forth their symptoms to the physician. They have to tell the truth, that is quite clear. Still, the plain truth can be dressed up a little; it can be presented with palliatives. A long course of strong drinks may figure as a short course of weak whisky-and-soda. Perhaps the danger, after all, is not so grave. Patients waiting for the doctor are like persons waiting to be tried for life. Can a man take any interest in anything who awaits his trial for life—who hopes for an acquittal, but fears a capital sentence?
The doctor's manservant looked round the room, and then glided like a black ghost across the thick carpet. He stopped before the lady in the window.