"How came it that Mrs Cannon came and rummaged _you_ out?" Edwin knew
that he would blush, and so he reached up for his whisky, and drank,
adding: "The old man still clings to his old brand of Scotch."
"My dear fellow, I know no more than you. I was perfectly staggered--I
can tell you that. I hadn't seen her since before she was married.
Only heard of her again just lately through Janet. I suppose it was
Janet who told her I was at Ealing. It's an absolute fact that just at
the first blush I didn't even recognise her."
"Didn't you?" Edwin wondered how this could be.
"I did not. She came into our surgery, as if she'd come out of the next
room and I'd seen her only yesterday, and she just asked me to come away
with her at once to Bursley. I thought she was off her nut, but she
wasn't. She showed me your telegram."
"The dickens she did!" Edwin was really startled.
"Yes. I told her there was nothing absolutely fatal in a temperature of
104. It happened in thousands of cases. Then she explained to me
exactly how he'd been ill before, seemingly in the same way, and I could
judge from what she said that he wasn't a boy who would stand a high
temperature for very long."
"By the way, what's his temperature to-night?" Edwin interrupted.
"102 point 7," said Charlie.
"Yes," he resumed, "she did convince me it might be serious. But what
then? I told her I couldn't possibly leave. She asked me why not. She
kept on asking me why not. I said, What about my patients here? She
asked if any of them were dying. I said no, but I couldn't leave them
all to my partner. I don't think she realised, before that, that I was
in partnership. She stuck to it worse than ever then. I asked her why
she wanted just me. I said all we doctors were much about the same, and
so on. But it was no use. The fact is, you know, Hilda always had a
great notion of me as a doctor. Can't imagine why! Kept it to herself
of course, jolly close, as she did most things, but I'd noticed it now
and then. You know--one of those tremendous beliefs she has. You're
another of her beliefs, if you want to know."
"How do you know? Give us another cigarette." Edwin was exceedingly
uneasy, and yet joyous. One of his fears was that the Sunday might
inquire how it was that he signed telegrams to Hilda with only his
Christian name. The Sunday, however, made no such inquiry.
"How do I know!" Charlie exclaimed. "I could tell in a second by the
way she showed me your telegram. Oh! And besides, that's an old story,
my young friend. You needn't flatter yourself it wasn't common property
at one time."
"Oh! Rot!" Edwin muttered. "Well, go on!"
"Well, then I explained that there was such a thing as medical
etiquette... Ah! you should have heard Hilda on medical etiquette. You
should just have heard her on that lay--medical etiquette versus the
dying child. I simply had to chuck that. I said to her, `But suppose
you hadn't caught me at home? I might have been out for the day--a
hundred things.' It was sheer accident she had caught me. At last she
said: `Look here, Charlie, will you come, or won't you?'"
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