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Updated: May 28, 2025
"Lilly," said Dr McTougall, as Edith entered his consulting-room. "I'm just off to see a patient who is very ill, and there is another who is not quite so ill, but who also wants to see me. I'll send you to the latter as my female assistant, if you will go. Her complaint is chiefly mental. In fact, she needs comfort more than physic, and I know of no one who is comparable to you in that line.
He told them how that I had acted like a hero at the fire, and then, after giving, in minute detail, an account of all that the reader already knows, he went on to say that the whole family, except Dr McTougall, was laid up with colds; that the governess was in a high fever; that the maid-servants, having been rescued on the shoulders of firemen from the attics, were completely broken down in their nerves; and that I had received an injury to my right leg, which, although I had said nothing about it on the night of the fire, had become so much worse in the morning that I could scarcely walk across the room.
"Why, Mellon," he said, sitting down beside me, and patting my dog, "I imagined from your tones, as I entered, that you were having some serious conversation with my wife." "No; Mrs McTougall has not yet returned from her drive. I was merely having a chat with Dumps. I had of late, in my lodgings, got into a way of thinking aloud, as it were, while talking to my dog.
Who'd make 'er gruel? Who'd polish 'er shoes every mornin' till you could see to shave in 'em, though she don't never put 'em on? Who'd make 'er bed an' light 'er fires an' fetch 'er odd bits o' coal? An' who'd read the noos to 'er, an' " "Why, Slidder," interrupted Dr McTougall, "you said just now that you could not read."
The only thing I am quite sure of is that I talked incessantly, enthusiastically, to Mrs McTougall, but kept my eyes fixed on Lilly Blythe all the time; and I know that Lilly blushed a good deal, and bent her pretty head frequently over her "darling Pompey," and fondled him to his heart's content. That night my leg violently resented the treatment it had received.
"Are you I beg pardon are you quite sure? Have you seen Miss McTougall since she " "Miss McTougall!" exclaimed the doctor, with a laugh. "D'you mean my little Jenny by that dignified title?" "Well, of course, I did not know her name, and she is not very large; but I brought her down the shoot with such violence that "
"Yes," I continued, "it's quite true. This fire will apparently be the making of little Slidder, as well as you and me, for we are all going to live and work together. Isn't that nice? Evidently Dr McTougall is a trump, and so is his friend Dobson, who puts this fine mansion at his disposal until another home can be got ready for us."
"Yes, Dr McTougall has," she replied as petulantly as it was possible for her to speak. "I've been feeling very low and weak to-day, and sent for him; but I suppose he thinks it's only imagination. Well, well, perhaps it is," she added, after a pause, and with a little sigh. "I'm very foolish, no doubt."
I had just ascertained from the brass plate on the door that Dr McTougall dwelt there, and was thinking what an ugly unromantic name that was for a pretty girl as I descended the steps, when Dumps's first yell broke upon my astonished ears.
In the midst of the universal stillness, when no sound was heard save the sighing of the night-wind or the solemn creaking of an unsuccessful smoke-curer, there came a voice of alarm down the tube "John, do you hear burglars?" "Oh, dear! no, mum, I don't." "I'm convinced I hear them at the back of the house!" tubed Mrs McTougall. "Indeed it ain't, mum," tubed John in reply.
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