Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: The Great Adventure: A Play of Fancy in Four Acts by Bennett Arnold
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page
Ebook has 1313 lines and 26075 words, and 27 pages
PASCOE. Pneumonia is the matter.
CARVE. Surely that's some one in the hall.
PASCOE. Keep perfectly calm, my man. It's my assistant. I left the door open on purpose for him. He's got the poultice and things. Come along, come along there. This way.
PASCOE. Found the antiphlogistine?
EDWARD. Yes.
PASCOE. Where's the bedroom?
CARVE. There's one there.
PASCOE. We'll get him into bed now. Bed ready?
CARVE. Yes. I--I think he was just making it up.
PASCOE. Does he make up his own bed?
CARVE. Always.
PASCOE. Yes, this will do. Put those things down here a minute while we lift him.
CARVE. Can I do anything?
PASCOE. You see that chair?
CARVE. I see it.
PASCOE. Go and sit on it.
JANET. I rang twice.
CARVE. The bell must be out of order.
JANET. I couldn't be sure, but I don't think it's the bell that's out of order.
CARVE. Oh! You think I'm out of order.
JANET. No. I was thinking that you'd only just come into the house--all you famous folk--and you hadn't quite got it straight yet--as it were.
CARVE. All we famous folk?
JANET. Well--I don't know myself about that sort of thing.
CARVE. What sort of thing?
JANET. It struck me all of a sudden, while I was waiting at the door, that it might have been left open on purpose.
CARVE. The front door? On purpose? What for?
JANET. Oh--for some one particular to walk in without any fuss. So in I stepped.
JANET. It's shut now. You don't want everybody walking in, do you?
JANET. Was it a message you had for me?
CARVE. No, no. Not a message.... But--the fact is, we're rather upset here for the moment.
JANET. Yes. Illness.
CARVE. Now, if it isn't an indiscreet question, how did you know that there was illness?
JANET. I was standing looking at this house and wondering whether I shouldn't do better to go right back home there and then. But "No," I said, "I've begun, and I'll go through with it."--Well, I was standing there when what should I see but a parlour maid pop up from the area steps next door, and she says to me over the railings, "The doctor's just been." Just like that, excited. So I said, "Thank you, miss." I hope it's nothing serious?
CARVE. Pneumonia.
JANET. Pneumonia. What a mercy!
CARVE. Mercy?
JANET. If you look at it sensibly it's about the best illness anybody could have in hot weather like this. You've got to keep them warm. The weather does it for you. If it was typhoid now, and you'd got to keep them cool--that would be awkward. Not but it passes me how anybody can catch pneumonia in August.
CARVE. Coming over from the Continent.
JANET. Oh! the Continent. It's not Mr. Shawn that's ill?
CARVE. Mr. Shawn? Oh no, no! It's Ilam Carve.
JANET. Oh, him! Poor thing. And nobody but men in the house.
CARVE. And who told you that?
JANET. Well! I always feel sorry for gentlemen when they have to manage for themselves, even if they're well and hearty. But when it comes to illness--I can't bear to think about it. Still, everybody has their own notions of comfort. And I've no doubt he'll very soon be better.
CARVE. You think he will?
JANET. You say you hadn't a message?
JANET. When?
CARVE. Any time. Any time. Soon.
JANET. Night after to-morrow?
CARVE. Why not morning?
JANET. Perhaps morning is safer. Thank you. Very well, then. Day after to-morrow.... I suppose Mr. Shawn has a rare fine situation here?
CARVE. Nothing to complain of, if you ask me.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page