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576 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
was written in a fine legible hand—and which, in fact, was a
banker's book. The inspection of the MS. volume in question
must have pleased the worthy physician ; for a grin came over his
venerable features, and he straightway drew out of the desk a slim
volume of grey paper, on each page of which were inscribed the
highly respectable names of Messrs. Stumpy and Rowdy and Co.,
of Lombard Street, Bankers. On a slip of grey paper the Doctor
wrote a prescription for a draught, statim sumendus—(a draught—
mark my pleasantry)—which he handed over to his little friend.
"There, you little fool !" said he. "The father is a rascal,
but the boy is a fine fellow ; and you, you little silly thing, I must
help in this business myself, or you will go and ruin yourself, I
know you will ! Offer this to the fellow for his bill. Or stay !
How much money is there in the house? Perhaps the sight of
notes and gold will tempt him more than a cheque." And the
Doctor emptied his pockets of all the fees which happened to be
therein—I don't know how many fees of shining shillings and
sovereigns, neatly wrapped up in paper ; and he emptied a drawer
in which there was more silver and gold : and he trotted up to his
bedroom, and came panting, presently, downstairs with a fat little
pocket-book containing a bundle of notes, and with one thing or
another, he made up a sum of—I won't mention what ; but this
sum of money, I say, he thrust into the Little Sister's hand, and
said, " Try the fellow with this, Little Sister, and see if you can
get the bill from him. Don't say it's my money, or the scoundrel
will be for having twenty shillings in the pound. Say it's yours,
and there's no more where that came from ; and coax him, and
wheedle him, and tell him plenty of lies, my dear. It won't break
your heart to do that. What an immortal scoundrel Brummell
Firmin is, to be sure ! Though, by the way, in two more cases at
the hospital I have tried that ________ " And here the Doctor went off
into a professional conversation with his favourite nurse, which I
could not presume to repeat to any non-medical men.
The Little Sister bade God bless Doctor Goodenough, and wiped
her glistening eyes with her handkerchief, and put away the notes
and gold with a trembling little hand, and trudged off with a lightsome
step and a happy heart. Arrived at Tottenham Court Road,
she thought, shall I go home, or shall I go to poor Mrs. Philip and
take her this money ? No. Their talk that day had not been very
pleasant : words, very like high words, had passed between them,
and our Little Sister had to own to herself that she had been rather
rude in her late colloquy with Charlotte. And she was a proud
Little Sister : at least she did not care for to own that she had
been hasty or disrespectful in her conduct to that young woman.