One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

George Meredith
to her bed. She is foolish enough to sleep in a close-curtained
bed. But the poor lady is so exceedingly stout that a
puff of cold would carry her off, she fears.’
Victor stamped his foot. ‘This man Jarniman serves a lady
now in a—serious, does he say? Was he precise?’
‘Mr. Jarniman spoke of a remarkable number of diseases;
very complicated, he says. He has no opinion of doctors. He
says, that the lady’s doctor and the chemist—she sits in a
chemist’s shop and swallows other people’s prescriptions that
take her fancy. He says, her continuing to live is wonderful.
He has no reason to hurry her, only for the satisfaction of a
natural curiosity.’
‘He mentioned her name?’
‘No name, sir.’
Skepsey’s limpid grey eyes confirmed the negative to Victor,
who was assured that the little man stood clean of any
falsity.
‘You are not on equal terms. You and the magistrate have
helped him to know who it is you serve, Skepsey.’
‘Would you please to direct me, sir.’
‘Another time. Now go and ease your feet with a run over
the town. We have music in half an hour. That you like, I
know. See chiefly to amusing yourself.’
Skepsey turned to go; he murmured, that he had enjoyed
his trip.
Victor checked him: it was to ask whether this Jarniman
had specified one, any one of the numerous diseases afflicting
his aged mistress.
Now Jarniman had shocked Skepsey with his blunt titles
for a couple of the foremost maladies assailing the poor lady’s
decayed constitution: not to be mentioned, Skepsey’s thought,
in relation to ladies; whose organs and functions we, who
pay them a proper homage by restricting them to the sphere
so worthily occupied by their mothers up to the very oldest
date, respectfully curtain; their accepted masters are chivalrous
to them, deploring their need at times for the doctors
and drugs. He stood looking most unhappy. ‘She was to appear,
sir, in a few—perhaps a week, a month.’
A nod dismissed him.
The fun of the expedition (and Dudley Sowerby had wound
himself up to relish it) was at night in the towns, when the
sound of instrumental and vocal music attracted crowds be-
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