Page:Harold Titus--Timber.djvu/181

Rh on a list before him and wrote beside it the one word: "Renew."

The door opened and Doctor Pelly came in. Ezam frowned over his glasses to identify the newcomer, then started up eagerly and opened the gate in the office railing.

"You've been to the house, doctor?" he asked nervously.

The physician shoved back his derby wearily and took a morsel of chewing tobacco from a pocket of his unbuttoned vest, winking roguishly, and apparently unmindful of Ezam's agitation.

"Better 'n Blaud's, Ezam," he said, taking a chair and stretching out his dusty shoes with a sigh. "Yeah, I've been over to see Lily."

Grainger fidgeted in his chair. His eyes showed, with their eagerness, a rare timidity.

"You two are all het up over nothing," Pelly said, and the other stiffened as though the pronouncement were an affront. "If I was a young doctor and not a friend, I'd welcome patients like your wife, Ezam. They've given many a young cub his start; nothin' better in the way of practice than a nervous woman with plenty of money. Nothing you can do for 'em, so there's no danger of their gettin' well. Only way you can lose 'em is to fail to take 'em seriously."

He winked again and the banker cleared his throat.

"Why in Sam Hill don't you an' Lily light out of here?" Pelly asked bluntly. "You can do more for her than I can, Ezam. You and your car and a part of your income spent liberal like."

Grainger settled back in his chair, reassured by the confidence in the doctor's tone.