put you out. I am
really not a vulgar, greedy doctor pushing myself into a case with which
I have no concern, for some self-interested motive. I can assure you
that I have more than enough to do with illness in London and should be
thankful to escape from it here. I want a holiday."

"Take one, my dear Doctor Isaacson," remarked Doctor Hartley,
imperturbably--"take one, and leave me to work."

"No. Professional etiquette or no professional etiquette, I can't take
one while my friend is in such a condition of illness. I can't do that."

"I'm really afraid you'll have to, so far as this case is concerned. I'm
an American, and I'm not going to be pushed away from a thing I've set
my hand to--pushed away discourteously, and against the desires of those
who have called me in. Never in the course of my professional experience
has another physician butted in--yes, that's the expression for it:
butted right in--without 'With' or 'By your leave,' as you have. It's
simply not to be borne. And I'm not the man to bear what's not to be
borne. Really, if one didn't know you to be a doctor, one would almost
take you for a Bowery detective. Straight, now, one would!"

"Where's Mrs. Armine?" said Isaacson abruptly. "Is she asleep, too?"

"She is."

The languid impertinence of the voice goaded Isaacson. Scarcely ever, if
ever, before had he felt such an almost physical longing for violence.
But he did not lose his self-restraint, although he suffered bitterly in
keeping it.

"Have you any idea how long she is going to sleep?"

"Some hours."

"What? Do you mean that you have put her to sleep, too?"

"I have ventured to do so. Her night had not been good."

Isaacson remembered the sounds that had come to him over the Nile.

"You have given her a sleeping draught?" he said.

"I have."

"But she was expecting me here. She was expecting me here for a
consultation."

"I beg your pardon. You were good enough to say you meant to come. Mrs.
Armine has been scrupulously delicate and courteous to me. That I know.
You placed her in a very difficult position. She explained matters when
I arrived."

She had "explained matters"! Isaacson felt rather as if he were fighting
an enemy who had laid a mine to check or to destroy him, and had then
retreated to a distance.

"Last night, Doctor Hartley," he said, very quietly and coldly, "Mr.
Armine, in Mrs. Armine's presence, expressed a strong wish to put
himself in my hands. I came her