Geo and his mother were sitting at their evening meal when the doctor had knocked at their door. And they were not alone; Milly Greenacre was with them. The three were laughing merrily over the old lady's reminiscences of her "courting" days, and there was a pleasant sense of comfort and happiness in the air.
"I am sorry to interrupt you, Mrs. Lummis," said the doctor, putting his kindly face in at the door, "but I have come to ask you for your nurse."
"Come in, sir, come in," said Mrs. Lummis, rising; and the doctor complied, Geo closing the door behind him.
"But nurse have been gone these two days, sir," she said wonderingly.
"Ah yes. It's not Nurse Blunt I want; it is this good fellow here," looking at Geo, who got very red and looked extremely uncomfortable. "The truth is," went on the doctor, "it is not a woman I want, but a _man_, for the vicar; he is desperately ill, you know."
"Yes, sir, we've heard," said Mrs. Lummis sympathetically. "That's a bad job, poor gentleman, I'm sure; but---"
"Now, look here," said the doctor, cutting short any possible objections, "this is a matter of life or death; there is no time to lose.--Will you or will you not come?" turning to Geo.
"Me, sir! I am sure I don't know. I don't know nothin' about nursing. I---"
"You know quite enough. Nurse Blunt will be there when she can, and Mrs. Crowe will do her best. But the truth is, the poor man is violent. It is a strong man I want, with a steady nerve and a good temper. You, I think can answer to this description, and I think, after the pluck and ability you showed during the past week, that I can trust you."
Geo's eyes gleamed for a moment under their downcast lids, and he looked at his mother and Milly for inspiration; and the doctor's keen eye noticed with amusement that he sought Milly's counsel first.
"Oh, you must go," said Milly warmly, answering the look. "That would be a shame not to go to him. If only I was a man---"
"Which you need not wish at all, Milly," said the doctor, laughing, for he had known Milly all her life. "You had better come and help Mrs. Lummis a bit every day, and let her son go.--Come along, Geo; put your night things together and let us be off." And so, as Mrs. Lummis expressed it afterwards, "the doctor was so terrible masterful he took him off before my own eyes as if he'd a-been no more'n a child!"