Carrissima, arriving with Phoebe at half-past four, was prepared to
admire everything. She was taken first to the small consulting-room,
and shown various kinds of apparatus for the administration of ether,
chloroform and gas, then to the waiting-room, where Phoebe poured out
tea. Mrs. Lawrence Faversham, for her part, was more critical. She
insisted that Mark had paid more than the furniture was worth. Much of
it was fit only for the dusthole! The curtains, for instance, were
falling to pieces, and in any case he positively was bound to invest in
a new carpet.
"Look at the darns!" she cried. "It must have served for generation
after generation of physicians. It is enough to put any patient off!
Whatever you do without, you really must have a new carpet."
"Don't you think I could rub along with the old one for the present?"
asked Mark, turning to Carrissima, who, however, felt she must agree
with her sister-in-law.
"Such a fuss about seven or eight guineas," said Phoebe. "If you won't
buy one I shall have to make you a present."
"Well, then," exclaimed Mark suddenly, "suppose you and Carrissima help
me choose it.
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