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ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 219
CHAPTER XII
DAMOCLES
ON the next morning, at an hour so early that Old Parr Street
was scarce awake, and even the maids who wash the broad
steps of the houses of the tailors and medical gentlemen who
inhabit that region had not yet gone down on their knees before their
respective doors, a ring was heard at Dr. Firmin's night-bell, and when
the door was opened by the yawning attendant, a little person in a
grey gown and a black bonnet made her appearance, handed a note
to the servant, and said the case was most urgent and the Doctor
must come at once. Was not Lady Humandhaw the noble person
whom we last mentioned, as the invalid about whom the Doctor and
the nurse had spoken a few words on the previous evening? The
Little Sister, for it was she, used the very same name to the servant,
who retired grumbling to waken up his master and deliver the note.
Nurse Brandon sat a while in the great gaunt dining-room where
hung the portrait of the Doctor in his splendid black collar and
cuffs, and contemplated this masterpiece, until an invasion of housemaids
drove her from the apartment, when she took refuge in that
other little room to which Mrs. Firmin's portrait had been consigned.
" That's like him ever so many years and years ago," she thinks.
" It is a little handsomer ; but it has his wicked look that I used
to think so killing, and so did my sisters, both of them—they were
ready to tear out each other's eyes for jealousy. And that's Mrs.
Firmin ! Well, I suppose the painter haven't flattered her. If he
have she could have been no great things, Mrs, F. couldn't." And
the Doctor, entering softly by the opened door and over the thick
Turkey carpet, comes up to her noiselessly, and finds the Little
Sister gazing at the portrait of the departed lady.
" Oh, it's you, is it ? I wonder whether you treated her no
better than you treated me, Dr. F. I've a notion she's not the
only one. She don't look happy, poor thing !" says the little lady.
"What is it, Caroline?" asks the deep-voiced Doctor; "and
what brings you so early ?"
The Little Sister then explains to him. " Last night after he