Lord Kilgobbin Part 20

'I have some little knowledge in that way: I studied and walked the hospitals for a couple of years,' broke out Joe. 'Shall I go up to him?'

'By all means,' cried several together, and Joe rose and followed Mathew upstairs.

'Oh, are you a medical man?' cried Lockwood, as the other entered.

'After a fas.h.i.+on, I may say I am. At least, I can tell you where my skill will come to its limit, and that is something.'

'Look here, then--he would insist on getting up, and I fear he has displaced the position of the bones. You must be very gentle, for the pain is terrific.'

'No; there's no great mischief done--the fractured parts are in a proper position. It is the mere pain of disturbance. Cover it all over with the ice again, and'--here he felt his pulse--'let him have some weak brandy-and-water.'

'That's sensible advice--I feel it. I am s.h.i.+very all over,' said Walpole.

'I'll go and make a brew for you,' cried Joe, 'and you shall have it as hot as you can drink it.'

He had scarcely left the room, when he returned with the smoking compound.

'You're such a jolly doctor,' said Walpole, 'I feel sure you'd not refuse me a cigar?'

'Certainly not.'

'Only think! that old barbarian who was here this morning said I was to have nothing but weak tea or iced lemonade.'

Lockwood selected a mild-looking weed, and handed it to his friend, and was about to offer one to Atlee, when he said--

'But we have taken you from your dinner--pray go back again.'

'No, we were at dessert. I'll stay here and have a smoke, if you will let me. Will it bore you, though?'

'On the contrary,' said Walpole, 'your company will be a great boon to us; and as for myself, you have done me good already.'

'What would you say, Major Lockwood, to taking my place below-stairs? They are just sitting over their wine--some very pleasant claret--and the young ladies, I perceive, here, give half an hour of their company before they leave the dining-room.'

'Here goes, then,' said Lockwood. 'Now that you remind me of it, I do want a gla.s.s of wine.'

Lockwood found the party below-stairs eagerly discussing Joe Atlee's medical qualifications, and doubting whether, if it was a knowledge of civil engineering or marine gunnery had been required, he would not have been equally ready to offer himself for the emergency.

'I'll lay my life on it, if the real doctor arrives, Joe will take the lead in the consultation,' cried d.i.c.k: 'he is the most unabashable villain in Europe.'

'Well, he has put Cecil all right,' said Lockwood: 'he has settled the arm most comfortably on the pillow, the pain is decreasing every moment, and by his pleasant and jolly talk he is making Walpole even forget it at times.'

This was exactly what Atlee was doing. Watching carefully the sick man's face, he plied him with just that amount of amus.e.m.e.nt that he could bear without fatigue. He told him the absurd versions that had got abroad of the incident in the press; and cautiously feeling his way, went on to tell how d.i.c.k Kearney had started from town full of the most fiery intentions towards that visitor whom the newspapers called a 'noted profligate' of London celebrity. 'If you had not been shot before, we were to have managed it for you now,' said he.

'Surely these fellows who wrote this had never heard of me.'

'Of course they had not, further than you were on the Viceroy's staff; but is not that ample warranty for profligacy? Besides, the real intention was not to a.s.sail you, but the people here who admitted you.' Thus talking, he led Walpole to own that he had no acquaintances.h.i.+p with the Kearneys, that a mere pa.s.sing curiosity to see the interesting house had provoked his request, to which the answer, coming from an old friend, led to his visit.

Through this channel Atlee drew him on to the subject of the Greek girl and her parentage. As Walpole sketched the society of Rome, Atlee, who had cultivated the gift of listening fully as much as that of talking, knew where to seem interested by the views of life thrown out, and where to show a racy enjoyment of the little humoristic bits of description which the other was rather proud of his skill in deploying; and as Atlee always appeared so conversant with the family history of the people they were discussing, Walpole spoke with unbounded freedom and openness.

'You must have been astonished to meet the "t.i.tian Girl" in Ireland?' said Joe at last, for he had caught up the epithet dropped accidentally in the other's narrative, and kept it for use.

'Was I not! but if my memory had been clearer, I should have remembered she had Irish connections. I had heard of Lord Kilgobbin on the other side of the Alps.'

'I don't doubt that the t.i.tle would meet a readier acceptance there than here.'

'Ah, you think so!' cried Walpole. 'What is the meaning of a rank that people acknowledge or deny at pleasure? Is this peculiar to Ireland?'

'If you had asked whether persons anywhere else would like to maintain such a strange pretension, I might perhaps have answered you.'

'For the few minutes of this visit to me, I liked him; he seemed frank, hearty, and genial.'

'I suppose he is, and I suspect this folly of the lords.h.i.+p is no fancy of his own.'

'Nor the daughter's, then, I'll be bound?'

'No; the son, I take it, has all the ambition of the house.'

'Do you know them well?'

'No, I never saw them till yesterday. The son and I are chums: we live together, and have done so these three years.'

'You like your visit here, however?'

'Yes. It's rather good fun on the whole. I was afraid of the indoor life when I was coming down, but it's pleasanter than I looked for.'

'When I asked you the question, it was not out of idle curiosity. I had a strong personal interest in your answer. In fact, it was another way of inquiring whether it would be a great sacrifice to tear yourself away from this.'

'No, inasmuch as the tearing-away process must take place in a couple of days--three at farthest.'

'That makes what I have to propose all the easier. It is a matter of great urgency for me to reach Dublin at once. This unlucky incident has been so represented by the newspapers as to give considerable uneasiness to the Government, and they are even threatened with a discussion on it in the House. Now, I'd start to-morrow, if I thought I could travel with safety.

You have so impressed me with your skill, that, if I dared, I'd ask you to convoy me up. Of course I mean as my physician.'

'But I'm not one, nor ever intend to be.'

'You studied, however?'

'As I have done scores of things. I know a little bit of criminal law, have done some s.h.i.+pbuilding, rode _haute ecole_ in Cooke's circus, and, after M.

Dumas, I am considered the best amateur macaroni-maker in Europe.'

'And which of these careers do you intend to abide by?'

'None, not one of them. "Financing" is the only pursuit that pays largely.

I intend to go in for money.'

'I should like to hear your ideas on that subject.'

'So you shall, as we travel up to town.'

'You accept my offer, then?'