"
"Indeed! Will you pardon me if I ask rather a strange question?"
"Certainly, if it is a necessary one."
"Answered like a lawyer, Mr. Dale," replied Dr. Westbrook, with a
smile. "I want to know whether this old and trusted servant of yours
has any beneficial interest in your death?"
"Interest in my death--"
"In plainer words, has he reason to think that you have put him down in
your will--supposing that you have made a will; which is far from
probable?"
"Well, yes," replied Douglas, thoughtfully; "I have made a will within
the last few months, and Jarvis, my old servant knows that he is
provided for, in the event of surviving me--not a very likely event,
according to the ordinary hazards; but a man is bound to prepare for
every contingency."
"You told your servant that you had provided for him?"
"I did. He has been such an excellent creature, that it was only
natural I should leave him comfortably situated in the event of my
death."
"No; to be sure," answered the physician, with rather an absent manner.
"And now I need trouble you with no further questions this morning.
Come to me in a few days, and in the meantime take the medicine I
prescribe for you."
Dr. Westbrook wrote a prescription, and Mr. Dale departed, very much
perplexed by his interview with the celebrated physician.
Douglas went to Fulham that evening as usual, and the first question
Paulina asked related to his interview with the doctor.
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