"Come along!" said he. "If you're to do any good at all, it must
be in these next three days. After that, I'll ensure his life for
this bout; and mind! I shall send you home then; for he might
know you, and I'll have no excitement to throw him back again,
and no sobbing and crying from you. But now every moment your
care is precious to him. I shall tell my own story to the
Bensons, as soon as I have installed you."
Mr. Donne lay in the best room of the Queen's Hotel--no one with
him but his faithful, ignorant servant, who was as much afraid of
the fever as any one else could be, but who, nevertheless, would
not leave his master--his master who had saved his life as a
child, and afterwards put him in the stables at Bellingham Hall,
where he learnt all that he knew. He stood in a farther corner of
the room, watching his delirious master with affrighted eyes, not
daring to come near him, nor yet willing to leave him.
"Oh! if that doctor would but come! He'll kill himself or me--and
them stupid servants won't stir a step over the threshold; how
shall I get over the night? Blessings on him--here's the old
doctor back again! I hear him creaking and scolding up the
stairs!"
The door opened, and Mr. Davis entered, followed by Ruth.
"Here's the nurse, my good man--such a nurse as there is not in
the three counties. Now, all you'll have to do is to mind what
she says."
"Oh, sir! he's mortal bad! won't you stay with us through the
night, sir?"
"Look here!" whispered Mr.
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