"Well," she exclaimed, with her usual enthusiasm, seizing Rachel by the
arm, "I call this splendid! I guessed it was going to happen from the
very beginning! I saw you two were made for each other. Now you've just
got to tell me all about it--when's it to be, where are you going to
live--are you both tremendously happy?"
But the attention of the group was diverted to Mrs. Elliot, who was
passing them with her eager but uncertain movement, carrying in her
hands a plate and an empty hot-water bottle. She would have passed them,
but Mrs. Thornbury went up and stopped her.
"Thank you, Hughling's better," she replied, in answer to Mrs.
Thornbury's enquiry, "but he's not an easy patient. He wants to know
what his temperature is, and if I tell him he gets anxious, and if I
don't tell him he suspects. You know what men are when they're ill! And
of course there are none of the proper appliances, and, though he
seems very willing and anxious to help" (here she lowered her voice
mysteriously), "one can't feel that Dr. Rodriguez is the same as a
proper doctor. If you would come and see him, Mr. Hewet," she added,
"I know it would cheer him up--lying there in bed all day--and the
flies--But I must go and find Angelo--the food here--of course, with an
invalid, one wants things particularly nice." And she hurried past them
in search of the head waiter.
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