After examining the
patient, he told her that Miss Nippett was suffering from acute
influenza; also, that complications were threatening. He warned
Mavis of the risk of catching the disease, which, in her present
condition, might have serious consequences; but she had not the
heart to leave her friend to the intermittent care of the landlady.
With the money that Miss Nippett instructed her to find in queer
hiding-places, Mavis purchased bovril, eggs, and brandy, with which
she did her best to patch up the enfeebled frame of the sick woman.
Nothing that she or the doctor could do had any permanent effect;
every evening, Miss Nippett's temperature would rise with alarming
persistence.
"I wonder if she's anything on her mind that might account for it,"
the doctor said to Mavis, when leaving one evening.
"I don't see what she could have, unless--"
"Unless?"
"I believe she worries about a matter connected with her old
occupation. I'll try and find out," said Mavis.
"'Ow did 'e say I was?" asked Miss Nippett, as Mavis rejoined her.
"Much better."
"I ain't."
"Nonsense!"
"Reely I ain't. If 'e says I'm better, 'e'd better stay away.
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