Ah! Doctor Sanderson; you are saved again! Good for you, Patty! Good on your head! But is it possible that the doctor did not want to be saved? Did we hear aright?
"Damn!" observed Doctor Sanderson quietly. It was a heartfelt observation made for his own satisfaction, so far as a mere remark could accomplish that desirable end, and was intended, we may be sure, for no other ears than his own. But Sally heard it and chuckled.
Yes, good for you, Patty! There is no knowing what he might have been led into saying if he had not been interrupted at this point; what unwise course he might have pursued. You were just in time, Patty, to save him from his folly.
CHAPTER XVIII[ToC]
That old office from whose windows one could see the rows of oil casks and the fence of old ships' sheathing and the black dust of the road and the yards of vessels—that old office which had been sleeping for something more than a year—that old office which had been left behind when the business centre of Whitby began to move uptown, so many years ago—that old office, as I started to say at the beginning, was waking up again.
One hot morning in early August, Horry Carling stood at the window, his hands thrust deep into his pockets, and he gazed at a row of oil casks; gazed thoughtfully and for a long time. Then a smile began to curl the corners of his mouth. Presently he chuckled.
"I s—s—say, O—Ol—lie, c—c—come here; th—that is, if—f—f S—S—Sally c—can s—s—spare you."