At that last word, I popped up to look about the room, and the doctor caught hold of me with ludicrous haste. A pain shot through my body.
“Avast, avast, my hearty,” cries he. “'Tis a miracle you can speak, let alone carry your bed and walk for a while yet.” And he turned to Dorothy's mother, whom I beheld smiling at me. “You will give him the physic, ma'am, at the hours I have chosen. Egad, I begin to think we shall come through.
“But pray remember, ma'am, if he talks, you are to put a wad in his mouth.”
“He shall have no opportunity to talk, Dr. Barry,” said Mrs. Manners.
“Save for a favour I have to ask you, doctor,” I cried.
“'Od's bodkins! Already, sir? And what may that be?”
“That you will allow me to see Miss Manners.”
He shook with laughter, and then winked at me very roguishly.
“Oh!” says he, “and faith, I should be worse than cruel. First she comes imploring me to see you, and so prettily that a man of oak could not refuse her. And now it is you begging to see her. Had your eyes been opened, sir, you might have had many a glimpse of Miss Dolly these three weeks past.”
“What! She has been watching with me?” I asked, in a rapture not to be expressed.