"But Miss Phipps, I wish you wouldn"t trouble about my breakfast. I feel--"
"I know how you feel; that is, I know how _I_ should feel if I hadn"t eaten a thing but toast-bread since yesterday mornin". Sit down, Mr.
Bangs."
She hastened from the room. Galusha, the guilty feeling even more p.r.o.nounced, sat down as requested. Five minutes afterward she returned to tell him that breakfast was ready. He followed her to the dining room, another comfortable, sunshiny apartment, where Primmie, grinning broadly, served him with oatmeal and boiled eggs and hot biscuits and coffee. He was eating when Doctor Powers" runabout drove up.
The doctor, after scolding his patient for disobeying orders, gave the said patient a pretty thorough examination.
"You are in better shape than you deserve to be," he said, "but you are not out of the woods yet. What you need is to gain strength, and that means a few days" rest and quiet and good food. If your friends, the Halls, were at their cottage at the Centre I"d take you there, Mr.
Bangs, but they"re not. I would take you over to my house, but my wife"s sister and her children are with us and I haven"t any place to put you."
Galusha, who had been fidgeting in his chair, interrupted. "Now, Doctor Powers," he begged, "please don"t think of such a thing. I am quite well enough to travel."
"Excuse me, but you are not."
"But you said yourself you would take me to Wellmouth if the Halls were there."
"I did, but they"re not there."
"I know, but there is a hotel there, Mr.--ah--Pulcifer said so."
The doctor and Miss Phipps looked at each other.
"He said there was a hotel there," went on Galusha. "Now if you would be so kind as to--ah--take me to that hotel--"
Dr. Powers rubbed his chin.
"I should like to have you under my eye for a day or two," he said.
"Yes--yes, of course. Well, couldn"t you motor over and see me occasionally? It is not so very far, is it?... As to the additional expense, of course I should expect to reimburse you for that."
Still the physician looked doubtful.
"It isn"t the expense, exactly, Mr. Bangs," he said.
"I promise you I will not attempt to travel until you give your permission. I realize that I am still--ah--a trifle weak--weak in the knees," he added, with his slight smile. "I know you must consider me to have been weak in the head to begin with, otherwise I shouldn"t have gotten into this sc.r.a.pe."
The doctor laughed, but he still looked doubtful.
"The fact is, Mr. Bangs," he began--and stopped. "The fact is--the fact--"
Martha Phipps finished the sentence for him.
"The fact is," she said, briskly, "that Doctor Powers knows, just as I or any other sane person in Ostable County knows, that Elmer Rogers"
hotel at the Centre isn"t fit to furnish board and lodgin" for a healthy pig, to say nothin" of a half sick man. You think he hadn"t ought to go there, don"t you, doctor?"
"Well, Martha, to be honest with you--yes. Although I shouldn"t want Elmer to know I said it."
"Well, you needn"t worry; he shan"t know as far as I am concerned. Now of course there"s just one sensible thing for Mr. Bangs here to do, and you know what that is, doctor, as well as I do. Now don"t you?"
Powers smiled. "Perhaps," he admitted, "but I"d rather you said it, Martha."
"All right, I"m goin" to say it. Mr. Bangs," turning to the nervous Galusha, "the thing for you to do is to stay right here in this house, stay right here till you"re well enough to go somewhere else."
Galusha rose from his chair. "Oh, really," he cried, in great agitation, "I can"t do that. I can"t, really, Miss Phipps."
"Of course I realize you won"t be as comfortable here as you would be in a hotel, in a GOOD hotel--you"d be more comfortable in a pigsty than you would at Elmer"s. But--"
"Miss Phipps--Miss Phipps, please! I AM comfortable. You have made me very comfortable. I think I never slept better in my life than I did last night. Or ate a better breakfast than this one. But I cannot permit you to go to this trouble."
"It isn"t any trouble."
"Excuse me, I feel that it is. No, doctor, I must go--if not to the Wellmouth hotel, then somewhere else."
Doctor Powers whistled. Miss Martha looked at Galusha. Galusha, whose knees were trembling, sat down in the chair again. Suddenly the lady spoke.
"If this was a hotel you would be willin" to stay here, wouldn"t you, Mr. Bangs?" she asked.
"Why, yes, certainly. But, you see, it--ah--isn"t one."
"No, but we might make it one for three or four days. Doctor, what does Elmer Rogers charge his inmates--his boarders, I mean--a day?"
"Why, from three to five dollars, I believe."
"Tut, tut, tut! The robber! Well, I presume likely he"d rob Mr. Bangs here as hard as he"d rob anybody. Mr. Bangs, I take it that what troubles you mostly is that you don"t want to visit a person you"ve never met until last night. You"ve never met Elmer Rogers at all, but you would be perfectly willin" to visit him if you could pay for the privilege."
"Why--why, yes, of course, Miss Phipps. You have been very kind, so kind that I don"t know how to express my grat.i.tude, but I can"t accept any more of your hospitality. To board at a hotel is quite a different thing."
"Certainly it is. I appreciate how you feel. I should probably feel just the same way. This house of mine isn"t a hotel and doesn"t pretend to be, but if you think you can be comfortable here for the next few days and it will make you feel happier to pay--say, three dollars a day for the privilege, why--well, I"m satisfied if you are."
Galusha gazed at her in amazement. The doctor slapped his knee.
"Splendid!" he exclaimed. "Martha, as usual you"ve said and done just the right thing. Now, Mr. Bangs, I"ll see you again to-morrow morning.
Take the tablets as directed. You may go out for an hour or so by and by if the weather is good, but DON"T walk much or get in the least tired.
Good-morning."
He was at the door before his patient realized what he was about.
"But, doctor," cried Galusha, "I--I--really I--Oh, dear!"
The door closed. He turned to Miss Phipps in bewildered consternation.
She smiled at him rea.s.suringly.
"So THAT"S all settled," she said. "Now sit right down again, Mr. Bangs, and finish your breakfast.... Primmie, bring Mr. Bangs some hot coffee.
HOT coffee I said, remember."
Later, perhaps ten minutes later, Galusha ventured another statement.
"Miss Phipps," he said, "I--I--Well, since you insist upon doing this for me, for a person whom you never met until yesterday, I think the very least I can do is to tell you who--or--ah--what I am. Of course if the Halls were here they would vouch for me, but as they are not, I--Well, in a case of this kind it is--ah--customary, isn"t it, to give references?"