"But are you quite sure, Armine? Couldn't
Dr. Lucas get you quite well? You see this Dr. Medlicott is very
young," added the small maiden sapiently.
"Young doctors are all the go. Dr. Lucas said so when mother wrote
to ask if she had better bring me home for advice," said Armine.
"He knows all about Dr. Medlicott, and said he was first-rate, and
they've been writing to each other about me. The doctor stethoscoped
me all over, and then he did a map of my lungs, Cecil said, to send
in his letter."
"Oh!" gasped Babie, "didn't it frighten you?"
"I wanted to know, for I saw mother was in a way. She did talk and
whisk about so fast, and made such a fuss, that I thought I must be
much worse than I knew. So I told Dr. Medlicott I wished he would
tell me right out if I was going to die, in time to see you, and then
I shouldn't mind. So he said not now, and he thought I should get
over it in the end, but that most likely I should have a long time,
years perhaps, of being very careful. And when I asked if I should
be able to go back to Eton, he said he hardly expected it; and that
he believed it was kinder to let me know at once than let me be
straining and hoping on."
"Was it?" said Babie.
"I thought not," said Armine, "when I shut my eyes and the playing-
fields and the trees and the river stood up before me.
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