"
Mildred departed, and, gliding into the gloomy consulting-room like a
sunbeam, delivered her message to the old gentleman, who appeared to
be in some pain, and prepared to return.
"Don't go away," almost shouted the aged patient; "I have crushed my
finger in a door, and it hurts most confoundedly. You are something to
look at in this hole, and distract my attention."
Mildred thought to herself that this was an odd way of paying a
compliment, if it was meant for one; but then, old gentlemen with
crushed fingers are not given to weighing their words.
"Are you Dr. James' daughter?" he asked, presently.
"Yes, sir."
"Ugh, I have lived most of my life in Sherborne Lane, and never saw
anything half so pretty in it before. Confound this finger!"
At this moment the doctor himself arrived, and wanted to dismiss
Mildred, but Mr. Carr, who was a headstrong old gentleman, vowed that
no one else should hold his injured hand whilst it was dressed, and so
she stayed just long enough for him to fall as completely in love with
her shell-like face was though he had been twenty instead of nearly
seventy.
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