True Love: A Story of English Domestic LifeFarro, Sarah E.
General
True Love: A Story of English Domestic Life
Farro, Sarah E.
Domestic fiction; England -- Fiction
“Is it the fever,” impatiently asked Mary Ann, unclosing her hot
eyelids; “if it is we must drive it away,” said the doctor cheerfully.
“Why should the fever have come to me?” she rejoined in a tone of
rebellion. “Why was I thrown from my buggy last year and my back
sprained? Such unpleasant things do come to us.” “To sprain your back
is nothing compared with this fever; you got well again.” “And we will
get you well if you will be quiet and reasonable.” “I am so hot, my
head is so heavy.” The doctor, who had called for water and a glass,
was mixing up a brown powder which he had produced from his pocket;
she drank it without opposition, and then he lessened the weight of
the bed-clothes, and afterwards turned his attention to the bed-room.
It was close and hot, and the sun which had just burst forth brightly
from the gray sky shone full upon it. “You have got the chimney stuffed
up,” he exclaimed. “Mary Ann will not allow it to be open,” said Mrs.
Brewster; “she is sensitive to cold, and feels the slightest draught.”
The doctor walked to the chimney, turned up his coat cuff and wristband
and pulled down a bag filled with shavings; some soot came with it and
covered his hand, but he did not mind that; he was as little given to
ceremony as Mrs. Brewster was to caution, and he walked leisurely up to
the wash-stand to wash it off. “Now, if I catch that bag or any other
bag up there obstructing the air, I shall pull down the bricks and make
a good big hole that the sky can be seen through; of that I give you
notice, madam.” He next pulled the window down at the top behind the
blind, but the room at its best did not find favor with him. “It is
not airy; it is not cool,” he said. “Is there not a better ventilated
room in the house? if so, she shall be moved to it.” “My room is a cool
one,” interposed Janey eagerly; “the sun never shines upon it, doctor.”
It appears that Janey, thus speaking, must have reminded the doctor
that she was present for in the same unceremonious fashion that he had
laid his hands upon the chimney bag, he now laid them upon her shoulder
and walked her out of the room. “You go down stairs, Miss Janey, and
do not come within a mile of this room again until I give you notice.”
During this time Mary Ann was talking imperiously and fretfully. “I
will not be moved into Janey’s room; it is not furnished with half the
comforts of mine; it has only a little bed-side carpet; I will not go
there, doctor.” “Now, see here, Mary Ann,” said the doctor firmly, “I
am responsible for getting you well, and I shall take my own way to do
it. If I am to be contradicted at every suggestion, your mother can
summon some one else to attend you, I will not undertake it.”
“My dear you shall not be moved to Janey’s room;” said her mother
coaxingly; “you shall be moved to mine, it is larger than this, you
know, doctor, with a draught through it, if you wish to open the door
and windows.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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