after a minute:
''A curb.''
''That is right. A curb. Very good. Draw it tight. Nurse Spiller—'' He turned and called the nurse to him, and spoke to her quietly. Miss Wilson put her hands to her mouth, as if to feel for a chain; and again, she caught my eye, and her fingers fluttered, and she seemed ashamed.
I should have been sorry for her, at any other time; but for now, if they had laid her and ten more ladies like her down upon the floor and told me my way out was across their backs, I''d have run it with clogs on. I waited only until Dr Christie had finished giving his instructions to the nurse, and then I licked my mouth and leaned and said,
''Dr Christie, sir!'' He turned and came towards me.
''Mrs Rivers.'' He took my hand about the wrist, not smiling. ''How are you?''
''Sir,'' I said. ''Sir, I—''
''Pulse rather rapid,'' he said quietly, to Dr Graves. Dr Graves made a note of it. He turned back to me. ''You have hurt your face, I am sorry to see.''
Nurse Spiller spoke before I could.
''Cast herself to the floor, Dr Christie,'' she said, ''while in the grip of her fit''
''Ah, yes. You see, Mrs Rivers, the violence of the condition in which you arrived here. I hope you slept?''
''Slept? No, I—''
''Dear, dear. We cannot have that. I shall have the nurses give you a draught. You shall never grow well, without slumber.''
He nodded to Nurse Bacon. She nodded back.