“Step in here, Mr. Jan,” said the doctor.

Jan took one of his long legs over the counter, jumped off, and stepped in—­into the doctor’s sanctum.  Had Jan been given to speculation, he might have wondered what was coming; but it was Jan’s method to take things cool and easy, as they came, and not to anticipate them.

“My health has been bad of late,” began the doctor.

“Law!” cried Jan.  “What has been the matter?”

“A general disarrangement of the system altogether, I fancy,” returned Dr. West.  “I believe that the best thing to restore me will be change of scene—­travelling; and an opportunity to embrace it has presented itself.  I am solicited by an old friend of mine, in practice in London, to take charge of a nobleman’s son for some months—­to go abroad with him.”

“Is he ill?” asked literal Jan, to whom it never occurred to ask whether Dr. West had first of all applied to his old friend to seek after such a post for him.

“His health is delicate, both mentally and bodily,” replied Dr. West.  “I should like to undertake it:  the chief difficulty is leaving you here alone.”

“I dare say I can do it all,” said Jan.  “My legs get over the ground quick.  I can take to your horse.”

“If you find you cannot do it, you might engage an assistant,” suggested Dr. West.

“So I might,” said Jan.

“I should see no difficulty at all in the matter if you were my partner.  It would be the same as leaving myself, and the patients could not grumble.  But it is not altogether the thing to leave only an assistant, as you are, Mr. Jan.”

“Make me your partner, if you like,” said cool Jan. “I don’t mind.  What’ll it cost?”

“Ah, Mr. Jan, it will cost more than you possess.  At least, it ought.”

“I have got five hundred pounds,” said Jan.  “I wanted Lionel to have it, but he won’t.  Is that of any use?”

Dr. West coughed.  “Well, under the circumstances——­But it is very little!  I am sure you must know that it is.  Perhaps, Mr. Jan, we can come to some arrangement by which I take the larger share for the present.  Say that, for this year, you forward me——­”

“Why, how long do you mean to be away?” interrupted Jan.

“I can’t say.  One year, two years, three years—­it may be even more than that.  I expect this will be a long and a lucrative engagement.  Suppose, I say, that for the first year you transmit to me the one-half of the net profits, and, beyond that, hand over to Deborah a certain sum, as shall be agreed upon, towards housekeeping.”

“I don’t mind how it is,” said easy Jan.  “They’ll stop here, then?”

“Of course they will.  My dear Mr. Jan, everything, I hope, will go on just as it goes on now, save that I shall be absent.  You and Cheese—­whom I hope you’ll keep in order—­and the errand boy:  it will all be just as it has been.  As to the assistant, that will be a future consideration.”