offered to ask to stay behind but she....

SIMPSON, _the maid, comes in._

SIMPSON. Dr. Wedgecroft, sir.

WEDGECROFT _is on her heels. If you have an eye for essentials you may
tell at once that he is a doctor, but if you only notice externals you
will take him, for anything else. He is over forty and in perfect
health of body and spirit. His enthusiasms are his vitality and he has
too many of them ever to lose one. He squeezes_ MISS TREBELL'S _hand
with an air of fearless affection which is another of his
characteristics and not the least loveable._

WEDGECROFT. How are you?

FRANCES. I'm very well, thanks.

WEDGECROFT. [_To_ TREBELL, _as they shake hands._] You're looking fit.

TREBELL. [_With tremendous emphasis._] I am!

WEDGECROFT. You've got the motor eye though.

TREBELL. Full of dust?

WEDGECROFT. Look at Kent's. [_He takes_ WALTER'S _arm._] It's a slight but
serious contraction of the pupil ... which I charge fifty guineas to cure.

FRANCES. It's the eye of faith in you and your homeopathic doses. Don't you
interfere with it.

FRANCES TREBELL, _housekeeper, goes out._ KENT _has seized on the
letters and is carrying them to his room._

KENT. This looks like popularity and the great heart of the people, doesn't
it?

WEDGECROFT. Trebell, you're not ill, and I've work to do.

TREBELL. I want ten minutes. Keep anybody out, Kent.

KENT. I'll switch that speaking tube arrangement to my room.

TREBELL, _overflowing with vitality, starts to face the floor._

TREBELL. I've seen the last of Pump Court, Gilbert.

WEDGECROFT. The Bar ought to give you a testimonial ... to the man who not
only could retire on twenty years' briefs, but has.

TREBELL. Fifteen. But I bled the City sharks with a good conscience ...
quite freely.

WEDGECROFT. [_With a pretence at grumbling._] I wish I could retire.

TREBELL. No you don't. Doctoring's a priestcraft ... you've taken vows.

WEDGECROFT. Then why don't you establish _our_ church instead of ...

TREBELL. Yes, my friend ... but you're a heretic. I'd have to give the
Medical Council power to burn you at the stake.

KENT. [_With the book packages._] Parcel from the S.P.C.K., sir.

TREBELL. I know.... Disestablishment a crime against God; sermon preached by
the Vicar of something Parva in eighteen seventy three. I hope you're aware
it's your duty to read all those.

KENT. Suppose they convert