Mrs Dubedat [sitting down and breaking down] Oh, you none of you care.  You see people die every day.

Ridgeon [petting her] Nonsense! it’s nothing:  I told him to come in and say that.  I thought I should want to get rid of you.

Mrs Dubedat [shocked at the falsehood] Oh! ’ Ridgeon [continuing] Dont look so bewildered:  theres nobody dying.

Mrs Dubedat.  My husband is.

Ridgeon [pulling himself together] Ah, yes:  I had forgotten your husband.  Mrs Dubedat:  you are asking me to do a very serious thing?

Mrs Dubedat.  I am asking you to save the life of a great man.

Ridgeon.  You are asking me to kill another man for his sake; for as surely as I undertake another case, I shall have to hand back one of the old ones to the ordinary treatment.  Well, I dont shrink from that.  I have had to do it before; and I will do it again if you can convince me that his life is more important than the worst life I am now saving.  But you must convince me first.

Mrs Dubedat.  He made those drawings; and they are not the best—­ nothing like the best; only I did not bring the really best:  so few people like them.  He is twenty-three:  his whole life is before him.  Wont you let me bring him to you? wont you speak to him? wont you see for yourself?

Ridgeon.  Is he well enough to come to a dinner at the Star and Garter at Richmond?

Mrs Dubedat.  Oh yes.  Why?

Ridgeon.  I’ll tell you.  I am inviting all my old friends to a dinner to celebrate my knighthood—­youve seen about it in the papers, havnt you?

Mrs Dubedat.  Yes, oh yes.  That was how I found out about you.

Ridgeon.  It will be a doctors’ dinner; and it was to have been a bachelors’ dinner.  I’m a bachelor.  Now if you will entertain for me, and bring your husband, he will meet me; and he will meet some of the most eminent men in my profession:  Sir Patrick Cullen, Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington, Cutler Walpole, and others.  I can put the case to them; and your husband will have to stand or fall by what we think of him.  Will you come?

Mrs Dubedat.  Yes, of course I will come.  Oh, thank you, thank you.  And may I bring some of his drawings—­the really good ones?

Ridgeon.  Yes.  I will let you know the date in the course of to-morrow.  Leave me your address.

Mrs Dubedat.  Thank you again and again.  You have made me so happy:  I know you will admire him and like him.  This is my address. [She gives him her card].

Ridgeon.  Thank you. [He rings].

Mrs Dubedat [embarrassed] May I—­is there—­should I—­I mean—­[she blushes and stops in confusion].

Ridgeon.  Whats the matter?

Mrs Dubedat.  Your fee for this consultation?