Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West
He seemed astonished at this proceeding but made no resistance. Seated
at a small table she called a waitress and said:
"Bring a cup of chocolate, a soft-boiled egg and some toast."
"Pardon me, Miss Doyle," he said; "I thought you had breakfasted."
"So I have," she replied. "The breakfast I've ordered is for you, and
you're going to eat it if I have to ram it down your throat."
"But--Miss Doyle!"
"You've told us you are doomed. Well, you're going to die with a
full stomach."
"But the doctor--"
"Bother the doctor! I'm your doctor, now, and I won't send in a bill,
thank your stars."
He looked at her with his sad little smile.
"Isn't this a rather high-handed proceeding, Miss Doyle?"
"Perhaps."
"I haven't employed you as my physician, you know."
"True. But you've deliberately put yourself in my power."
"How?"
"In the first place, you tagged us here to this hotel."
"You don't mind, do you?"
"Not in the least. It's a public hostelry. In the second place, you
confided to us your disease and your treatment of it--which was really
none of our business."
"I--I was wrong to do that. But you led me on and--I'm so lonely--and you
all seemed so generous and sympathetic--that I--I--"
"That you unwittingly posted us concerning your real trouble. Do you
realize what it is? You're a hypo--hypo--what do they call
it?--hypochondriac!"
"I am not!"
"And your doctor--your famous specialist--is a fool."
"Oh, Miss Doyle!"
"Also you are a--a chump, to follow his fool advice. You don't need
sympathy, Mr. A. Jones. What you need is a slapstick."
"A--a--"
"A slapstick. And that's what you're going to get if you don't
obey orders."
Here the maid set down the breakfast, ranging the dishes invitingly
before the invalid. His face had expressed all the emotions from
amazement to terror during Patsy's tirade and now he gazed from her firm,
determined features to the eggs and toast, in an uncertain, helpless way
that caused the girl a severe effort to curb a burst of laughter.
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In a village there lived two men who had the self-same name. Both were named Claus. But one of them owned four horses, and the other owned only one horse; so to distinguish between them people called the man who had four horses Big Claus, and the man who had only one horse Little Claus. Now I'll tell you what happened to these two, for this is a true story.
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