"I am afraid you are very ill," he said, returning to the
bedside. "This is not, as you say, my sort of work. Will you
let me call in another man, a man we can trust thoroughly, to
consult?"
"I'm in your hands, said Sir Richmond. I want to pull
through."
"He will know better where to get the right sort of nurse for
the case--and everything."
The second doctor presently came, with the right sort of
nurse hard on his heels. Sir Richmond submitted almost
silently to his expert handling and was sounded and looked to
and listened at.
"H'm," said the second doctor, and then encouragingly to Sir
Richmond: "We've got to take care of you.
"There's a lot about this I don't like," said the second
doctor and drew Dr. Martineau by the arm towards the study.
For a moment or so Sir Richmond listened to the low murmur of
their voices, but he did not feel very deeply interested in
what they were saying. He began to think what a decent chap
Dr. Martineau was, how helpful and fine and forgiving his
professional training had made him, how completely he had
ignored the smothered incivilities of their parting at
Salisbury. All men ought to have some such training, Not a
bad idea to put every boy and girl through a year or so of
hospital service. . . . Sir Richmond must have dozed, for his
next perception was of Dr. Martineau standing over him and
saying "I am afraid, my dear Hardy, that you are very ill
indeed. Much more so than I thought you were at first."
Sir Richmond's raised eyebrows conveyed that he accepted this
fact.
"I think Lady Hardy ought to be sent for."
Sir Richmond shook his head with unexpected vigour.
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