CHAPTER XXV.
LADY BASSETT timed her next visit so that she found Dr. Suaby at home.
He received her kindly, and showed himself a master; told her Sir
Charles's was a mixed case, in which the fall, the fit, and a morbid
desire for offspring had all played their parts.
He hoped a speedy cure, but said he counted on her assistance. There
was no doubt what he meant.
Oh, for one thing, he said to her, rather slyly, "Coyne tells me you
have been good enough to supply us with a hint as to his treatment;
sedatives are opposed to his idiosyncrasy."
Lady Bassett blushed high, and said something about Dr. Willis.
"Oh, you are quite right, you and Dr. Willis; only you are not so very
conversant with that idiosyncrasy. Why have you let him smoke twenty
cigars every day of his life? the brain is accessible by other roads
than the stomach. Well, we have got him down to four cigars, and in a
month we will have him down to two. The effect of that, and exercise,
and simple food, and the absence of powerful excitements--you will see.
Do your part," said he, gayly, "we will do ours. He is the most
interesting patient in the house, and born to adorn society, though by
a concurrence of unhappy circumstances he is separated from it for a
while."
She spent the whole afternoon with Sir Charles, and they dined together
at the doctor's private table, with one or two patients who were
touched, but showed no signs of it on that occasion; for the good
doctor really acted like oil on the troubled waters.
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