One morning, when the sun was making the sea shimmer and glisten like so
much frosted silver in constant motion, Tom Fraser awoke, calm and
placid, after a long, burning time of fever, to find the soft, pleasant
face of Mrs Shingle bending over him; and, on seeing him awake, she
stole gently away, and, while he lay wondering and trying to make out
what it all meant, and whether it was a dream, the door once more
opened, and he knew he was awake, for Jessie appeared, to creep to his
bedside and clasp him in her arms.
Invalids recover fast under such circumstances. In his character of the
best doctor in London, sick and injured as he was, Tom's coming had
instantaneously effected Jessie's cure; and now, in turn, she nursed him
back to health, ready to become his wife when he should ask her to crown
his joy.
It was not long first; for at a meeting one day, old Hopper had proposed
to Dick that they should put down so much apiece for the young folks,
and this was done without their consent, the donors almost quarrelling
as to who should give most.
Old Hopper won.
It was some little time after, when Richard Shingle and his wife had
returned to town, that the former called upon his old friend in his
chambers, where there was a long chat about the young people, and also
about Max Shingle.
"Don't you make yourself uncomfortable about him," said Hopper gruffly.
"He won't starve as long as there's any one to swindle. As for his
wife, young Tom will see that she don't want, and so will I, for the
sake of the past."
"Why, hallo!" cried Dick suddenly, after the conversation had turned
upon music, and they had arranged for what was called "a good
scrape,"--"what have you got here?"
As he spoke he took a small bill from the chimney-piece, and began
looking at it with a grim smile of contempt on his face.
"Can't you read?" said Hopper roughly. "Plain enough, isn't it? `The
Gilded Pill for every ill.'"
"Yes, but--"
"`Yes, but,'--I haven't been well lately. And I'm going to take a few:
they say they're good for nearly everything."
"Oh, but I wouldn't do that," said Dick dubiously.
"Hey? not do it? why not? Speak up: this traffic makes such a noise."
"Oh, take them if you like," said Dick, smiling. "They won't hurt you."
"How do you know?" cried Hopper testily. "Everybody says they're good.
Hey? How do you know?"
"That's my secret," said Dick, laughing.
"Your what? Look here: what do you mean?"
"I say, take 'em if you like--hundreds of thousands do. Small boxes one
and three-halfpence, large boxes two-and-nine, with the Government
stamp."
"Bah! I know all about that," said Hopper, rattling a box close to his
ear, and then opening it, to show a dozen boluses covered with gold
foil. "Have one?"
"No, thanks," said Dick, smiling. "I know 'em by heart--compound
rhubarb and a little new bread. That's my secret, my fortune, old lad."
"What!" cried Hopper. "Hey? what! You made your fortune with these?"
"Yes," said Dick; "the murder's out now. My bright idea was--_The
Gilded Pill_. But I was not at all proud of it, so I kept it dark."
"Well, I am blessed," said Hopper.
"Glad of it. So am I, old man. It's paid me well, but there was always
a skeleton in the cupboard."
"Hey?"
"Skeleton, old man. I've paid thousands to Government for stamps, but
they wouldn't have let me off if anything had gone wrong."
"But these pills couldn't go wrong, could they?"
"I don't think so, Hopper; but I never meet a doctor without feeling
queer,--the faculty is like a cloud to me, and behind it I always seem
to see an inquest coming off through somebody taking too much of my
stuff."
"The idea of your keeping it all to yourself! You might have told me."
"You never told me you were a wealthy man, and Uncle Rounce in
Australia."
"Humph!"
"I say, Hopper, would you give up the pills now?"