"Well, my dear, and they are not here. We live, and manage to pay our way--nearly; and when they come to know you, the people are very sociable. We do have capital whist parties." "But you know I detest whist, dear," sighed Mrs Rumsey. "Let me send you another cup of coffee, Mr Trethick." "Thanks," said Geoffrey. "The fact is, I suppose," he continued to his host, "there are not enough inhabitants to give you a good practice." "That's it, so I fill up with catching trout, and making a few shillings at whist." "Yes, dear, you always would play whist," sighed Mrs Rumsey; and, to Geoffrey's horror, her nose this time went right up, as if to visit her forehead. "Capital game too," said the doctor. "That and fishing often keep me from having the blues." "Why don't you try and invest in some good mining speculation?" said Geoffrey. "First, because I've got very little to invest; secondly, because where there is a good spec, there's no chance of getting on." "Try Wheal Carnac," said Geoffrey. "Do you mean to tell me, as man to man, that that is going to turn up trumps?" said the doctor, with a little more animation. "I do indeed," said Geoffrey; "and if I had any money, I'd invest the lot." "What, after so many people had been ruined in it?" "Look here, doctor," said Geoffrey. "Suppose you go and take a house in, say Grosvenor Street, and start as physician." "That's just what he ought to do," cried Mrs Rumsey, who began to think Geoffrey full of sound common-sense. "Well, you would be sure to get some connection." "Of course, but it wouldn't be enough to keep me." "Exactly. Then another man, still retaining your plate on the door, comes, because you give it up in despair--fail, so to speak." "Oh, dear no!" sighed Mrs Rumsey; but her attention was taken off by her children, two of whom were having a silent quarrel, and indulging in furtive kicks and pinches beneath the table. "Go on," said the doctor. "Well, he next fails, after increasing the connection, and another takes the place, and another after him." "Yes." "Well, the last one has some connection to start with, adds his own efforts, and goes on and prospers, like a son succeeding his father." "You mean to say then that you succeed to something in Wheal Carnac." "I say that we succeed to all the work the others have done. There is the shaft sunk and the buildings ready, and with our machinery fixed, all that was needed was that we should go to work with plenty of enterprise." "But suppose it don't succeed--suppose you can't bring your patient back to life?" "My papa brought a man back--" "Be quiet, Bobby, when your papa's talking," cried Mrs Rumsey, who had to go out then to use the family handkerchief upon the noses of the hookah-smoking twins. "But I shall bring it back to life," said Geoffrey, firmly. "As you would say, the organs are all sound, and all it wanted was a stimulus to send the life-blood throbbing through the patient's veins."