The Vicar's People Part 49

"I'm setting a good example to my neighbours in having my house well garrisoned," said the doctor dryly. "I'm not at all ashamed to speak to my enemies in the gate--except when they come with their bills," he added softly.

"For shame, dear," cried Mrs Rumsey, "what will Mr Trethick think?"

"Think, ma'am," cried Geoffrey, "that he ought to be proud of his children. I never saw any better-behaved at table."

"He is proud of them, I must say," said Mrs Rumsey, who was beginning to forgive her visitor for coming to breakfast; "and if he had justice done to him people would own how clever he is."

"Clever at throwing a fly, Trethick, that's all."

"Well, I shall have to tumble down a shaft, or get blown up, or catch a fever, or something, to try him some day, Mrs Rumsey."

"Ah, a few more patients would be a G.o.dsend," said the doctor.

"My papa cut a man's leg right off once," said Bobby, sententiously.

"Then your papa must be a clever man," said Geoffrey, looking amusedly at the stolid little face.

"Bobby, you must not say such things," cried Mrs Rumsey. "Little boys should be seen and not heard. Prissy, my dear, you are swinging your legs about again."

"And he's got a wooden leg now--like an armchair," whispered Bobby, very softly, as soon as he saw his mother's attention taken up.

"There was no chance in London, Trethick," said the doctor. "I'd no capital, except children, and the rents were ruinous. Besides, you have to keep up appearances to such an extent."

"But the people there were not barbarians, my dear," sighed Mrs Rumsey.

"Well, my dear, and they are not here. We live, and manage to pay our way--nearly; and when they come to know you, the people are very sociable. We do have capital whist parties."

"But you know I detest whist, dear," sighed Mrs Rumsey. "Let me send you another cup of coffee, Mr Trethick."

"Thanks," said Geoffrey. "The fact is, I suppose," he continued to his host, "there are not enough inhabitants to give you a good practice."

"That's it, so I fill up with catching trout, and making a few s.h.i.+llings at whist."

"Yes, dear, you always would play whist," sighed Mrs Rumsey; and, to Geoffrey's horror, her nose this time went right up, as if to visit her forehead.

"Capital game too," said the doctor. "That and fis.h.i.+ng often keep me from having the blues."

"Why don't you try and invest in some good mining speculation?" said Geoffrey.

"First, because I've got very little to invest; secondly, because where there is a good spec, there's no chance of getting on."

"Try Wheal Carnac," said Geoffrey.

"Do you mean to tell me, as man to man, that that is going to turn up trumps?" said the doctor, with a little more animation.

"I do indeed," said Geoffrey; "and if I had any money, I'd invest the lot."

"What, after so many people had been ruined in it?"

"Look here, doctor," said Geoffrey. "Suppose you go and take a house in, say Grosvenor Street, and start as physician."

"That's just what he ought to do," cried Mrs Rumsey, who began to think Geoffrey full of sound common-sense.

"Well, you would be sure to get some connection."

"Of course, but it wouldn't be enough to keep me."

"Exactly. Then another man, still retaining your plate on the door, comes, because you give it up in despair--fail, so to speak."

"Oh, dear no!" sighed Mrs Rumsey; but her attention was taken off by her children, two of whom were having a silent quarrel, and indulging in furtive kicks and pinches beneath the table.

"Go on," said the doctor.

"Well, he next fails, after increasing the connection, and another takes the place, and another after him."

"Yes."

"Well, the last one has some connection to start with, adds his own efforts, and goes on and prospers, like a son succeeding his father."

"You mean to say then that you succeed to something in Wheal Carnac."

"I say that we succeed to all the work the others have done. There is the shaft sunk and the buildings ready, and with our machinery fixed, all that was needed was that we should go to work with plenty of enterprise."

"But suppose it don't succeed--suppose you can't bring your patient back to life?"

"My papa brought a man back--"

"Be quiet, Bobby, when your papa's talking," cried Mrs Rumsey, who had to go out then to use the family handkerchief upon the noses of the hookah-smoking twins.

"But I shall bring it back to life," said Geoffrey, firmly. "As you would say, the organs are all sound, and all it wanted was a stimulus to send the life-blood throbbing through the patient's veins."

"Veins of tin, eh?" said the doctor.

"Perhaps of copper too," said Geoffrey. "If you have a hundred or two to spare--"

"I've got four or five hundred of my wife's money, but not to spare,"

said the doctor. "Brings us in three and a half per cent."

"I wouldn't promise," said Geoffrey, enthusiastically; "but I sha'n't be satisfied if I don't make that mine return its company thirty, forty, perhaps fifty, per cent."

"Dr Rumsey," said the lady, whose nose had been travelling in quite a circle round the centre of her face, "it is your duty to invest that money in this mine."

"But it isn't a regular company, is it?"

"No," said Geoffrey, "but it is in my power to get a little interest in the affair for a friend."

"If I could feel sure," said the doctor, dubiously.