arper
entered.

"So you are turning out again," he said, after standing and looking at
me a moment. "How do you find yourself?"

"Oh! ever so much better," I replied; "indeed, I think I may say that I
am practically all right again. The soreness of my chest is all but
gone, and--"

"Let me feel your pulse," he commanded; and I stretched out my arm to
him.

He laid his finger on my pulse and kept it there for about half a
minute.

"Yes," he said, "you'll do; nothing very much the matter with you. Now,
look here, boy, Mrs Vansittart has instructed me to come and see how
you are getting on, and to say that if you feel equal to it, she would
like you to join the saloon party at dinner to-night--just themselves,
you and I, you know, alone. The fact is that they are all eager to tell
you what they feel about your exploit of this morning, and they will not
be happy until they have done so. Do you feel equal to the ordeal; or
shall I go back and say that they must excuse you for a little while
longer? I think you can stand it, you know. What say you?"

"Oh, yes!" I replied, "I dare say I can stand it. I suppose it will
have to come sometime, so I might as well get it over and done with.
But, I say, Doctor, just give them a hint to go easy with their thanks,
will you, there's a good fellow. If there is one thing I hate more than
anything else, it is being made a fuss of. You understand me?"

"Why, of course I _do_, my dear chap," was the reply. "It is
frightfully trying, I know; but you mustn't grudge them the satisfaction
of expressing their gratitude to you--see? I'll take care that they
shall not carry the thing too far. I'll tell 'em that you're not in
condition to stand very much excitement just yet. Well, then, so long.
See you again later."

As soon as I had finished dressing I seated myself in the very
comfortable revolving chair in front of my writing desk, to await the
second bugle call to dinner; but I had scarcely done so when a steward
came along to my cabin, bearing a medicine glass containing a draught
which he said the doctor had sent me, with instructions that I was to
take it at once. I accordingly tossed it off; and a few minutes later
the second dinner call sounded, and I made my way aft and up the
companion way to the drawing-room, where I found Mrs Vansittart, her
daughter, Monroe, and the doctor already assembled.

As one of the stewards flung open the door and announced me, Mrs