Mr. Sheldon’s prophecy was fully1 realised. Tom Halliday awoke the next day with a violent cold in his head. Like most big boisterous2 men of herculean build, he was the veriest craven in the hour of physical ailment3; so he succumbed4 at once to the malady5 which a man obliged to face the world and fight for his daily bread must needs have made light of.
The dentist rallied his invalid6 friend.
“Keep your bed, if you like, Tom,” he said, “but there’s no necessity for any such coddling. As your hands are hot, and your tongue rather queer, I may as well give you a saline draught7. You’ll be all right by dinner-time, and I’ll get George to look round in the evening for a hand at cards.”
Tom obeyed his professional friend — took his medicine, read the paper, and slept away the best part of the dull March day. At half-past five he got up and dressed for dinner, and the evening passed very pleasantly — so pleasantly, indeed, that Georgy was half inclined to wish that her husband might be afflicted8 with chronic9 influenza10, whereby he would be compelled to stop at home. She sighed when Philip Sheldon slapped his friend’s broad shoulder, and told him cheerily that he would be “all right to-morrow.” He would be well again, and there would be more midnight roistering, and she would be again tormented11 by that vision of lighted halls and beautiful diabolical12 creatures revolving13 madly to the music of the Post-horn Galop.
It seemed, however, that poor jealous Mrs. Halliday was to be spared her nightly agony for some time to come. Tom’s cold lasted longer than he had expected, and the cold was succeeded by a low fever — a bilious14 fever, Mr. Sheldon said. There was not the least occasion for alarm, of course. The invalid and the invalid’s wife trusted implicitly15 in the friendly doctor who assured them both that Tom’s attack was the most ordinary kind of thing; a little wearing, no doubt, but entirely16 without danger. He had to repeat this assurance very often to Georgy, whose angry feelings had given place to extreme tenderness and affection now that Tom was an invalid, quite unfitted for the society of jolly good fellows, and willing to receive basins of beef-tea and arrow-root meekly17 from his wife’s hands, instead of those edibles18 of iniquity19, oysters20 and toasted cheese.
Mr. Halliday’s illness was very tiresome21. It was one of those perplexing complaints which keep the patient himself, and the patient’s friends and attendants, in perpetual uncertainty22. A little worse one day and a shade better the next; now gaining a little strength, now losing a trifle more than he had gained. The patient declined in so imperceptible a manner that he had been ill three weeks, and was no longer able to leave his bed, and had lost alike his appetite and his spirits, before Georgy awoke to the fact that this illness, hitherto considered so lightly, must be very serious.
“I think if — if you have no objection, I should like to see another doctor, Mr. Sheldon,” she said one day, with considerable embarrassment23 of manner. She feared to offend her host by any doubt of his skill. “You see — you — you are so much employed with teeth — and — of course you know I am quite assured of your talent — but don’t you think that a doctor who had more experience in fever cases might bring Tom round quicker? He has been ill so long now; and really he doesn’t seem to get any better.”
Philip Sheldon shrugged24 his shoulders.
“As you please, my dear Mrs. Halliday,” he said carelessly; “I don’t wish to press my services upon you. It is quite a matter of friendship, you know, and I shall not profit sixpence by my attendance on poor old Tom. Call in another doctor, by all means, if you think fit to do so; but, of course, in that event, I must withdraw from the case. The man you call in may be clever, or he may be stupid and ignorant. It’s all a chance, when one doesn’t know one’s man; and I really can’t advise you upon that point, for I know nothing of the London profession.”
Georgy looked alarmed. This was a new view of the subject. She had fancied that all regular practitioners26 were clever, and had only doubted Mr. Sheldon because he was not a regular practitioner25. But how if she were to withdraw her husband from the hands of a clever man to deliver him into the care of an ignorant pretender, simply because she was over-anxious for his recovery?
“I always am foolishly anxious about things,” she thought.
And then she looked piteously at Mr. Sheldon, and said, “What do you think I ought to do? Pray tell me. He has eaten no breakfast again this morning; and even the cup of tea which I persuaded him to take seemed to disagree with him. And then there is that dreadful sore throat which torments27 him so. What ought I to do, Mr. Sheldon?”
“Whatever seems best to yourself, Mrs. Halliday,” answered the dentist earnestly. “It is a subject upon, which I cannot pretend to advise you. It is a matter of feeling rather than of reason, and it is a matter which you yourself must determine. If I knew any man whom I could honestly recommend to you, it would be another affair; but I don’t. Tom’s illness is the simplest thing in the world, and I feel myself quite competent to pull him through it, without fuss or bother; but if you think otherwise, pray put me out of the question. There’s one fact, however, of which I’m bound to remind you. Like many fine big stalwart fellows of his stamp, your husband is as nervous as a hysterical28 woman; and if you call in a strange doctor, who will pull long faces, and put on the professional solemnity, the chances are that he’ll take alarm, and do himself more mischief29 in a few hours than your new adviser30 can undo31 in as many weeks.”
There was a little pause after this. Georgy’s opinions, and suspicions, and anxieties were alike vague; and this last suggestion of Mr. Sheldon’s put things in a new and alarming light. She was really anxious about her husband, but she had been accustomed all her life to accept the opinion of other people in preference to her own.
“Do you really think that Tom will soon be well and strong again?” she asked presently.
“If I thought otherwise, I should be the first to advise other measures. However, my dear Mrs. Halliday, call in some one else, for your own satisfaction.”
“No,” said Georgy, sighing plaintively32, “it might frighten Tom. You are quite right, Mr. Sheldon; he is very nervous, and the idea that I was alarmed might alarm him. I’ll trust in you. Pray try to bring him round again. You will try, won’t you?” she asked, in the childish pleading way which was peculiar33 to her.
The dentist was searching for something in the drawer of a table, and his back was turned on the anxious questioner.
“You may depend upon it, I’ll do my best, Mrs. Halliday,” he answered, still busy at the drawer. Mr. Sheldon the younger had paid many visits to Fitzgeorge-street during Tom Halliday’s illness. George and Tom had been the Damon and Pythias of Barlingford; and George seemed really distressed34 when he found his friend changed for the worse. The changes in the invalid were so puzzling, the alternations from better to worse and from worse to better so frequent, that fear could take no hold upon the minds of the patient’s friends. It seemed such a very slight affair this low fever, though sufficiently35 inconvenient36 to the patient himself, who suffered a good deal from thirst and sickness, and showed an extreme disinclination for food, all which symptoms Mr. Sheldon said were the commonest and simplest features of a very mild attack of bilious fever, which would leave Tom a better man than it had found him.
There had been several pleasant little card-parties during the earlier stages of Mr. Halliday’s illness; but within the last week the patient had been too low and weak for cards — too weak to read the newspaper, or even to bear having it read to him. When George came to look at his old friend —“to cheer you up a little, old fellow, you know,” and so on — he found Tom, for the time being, past all capability37 of being cheered, even by the genial38 society of his favourite jolly good fellow, or by tidings of a steeplechase in Yorkshire, in which a neighbour had gone to grief over a double fence.
“That chap upstairs seems rather queerish,” George had said to his brother, after finding Tom lower and weaker than usual. “He’s in a bad way, isn’t he, Phil?”
“No; there’s nothing serious the matter with him. He’s rather low to-night, that’s all.”
“Rather low!” echoed George Sheldon. “He seems to me so very low, that he can’t sink much lower without going to the bottom of his grave. I’d call some one in, if I were you.”
The dentist shrugged his shoulders, and made a little contemptuous noise with his lips.
“If you knew as much of doctors as I do, you wouldn’t be in any hurry to trust a friend to the mercy of one,” he said carelessly. “Don’t you alarm yourself about Tom. He’s right enough. He’s been in a state of chronic over-eating and over-drinking for the last ten years, and this bilious fever will be the making of him.”
“Will it?” said George doubtfully; and then there followed a little pause, during which the brothers happened to look at each other furtively39, and happened to surprise each other in the act.
“I don’t know about over-eating or drinking,” said George presently; “but something has disagreed with Tom Halliday, that’s very evident.”
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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ailment
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| n.疾病，小病 | |
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succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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influenza
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| n.流行性感冒，流感 | |
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tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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bilious
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| adj.胆汁过多的；易怒的 | |
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implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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18
edibles
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| 可以吃的，可食用的( edible的名词复数 )； 食物 | |
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iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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oysters
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| 牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 ) | |
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tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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practitioner
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| n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者 | |
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practitioners
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| n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师） | |
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torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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capability
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| n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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