The next place at which he stopped was a fine house in a spacious
square. A carriage was waiting at the door. The servant who opened the
door knew him.
"Sir James is going out again, sir, in two minutes," the man said. Mr.
Vimpany answered: "I won't keep him two minutes."
A bell rang from the room on the ground floor; and a gentleman came
out, as Mr. Vimpany was shown in. Sir James's stethoscope was still in
his hand; his latest medical fee lay on the table. "Some other day,
Vimpany," the great surgeon said; "I have no time to give you now."
"Will you give me a minute?" the humble doctor asked.
"Very well. What is it?"
"I am down in the world now, Sir James, as you know--and I am trying to
pick myself up again."
"Very creditable, my good fellow. How can I help you? Come, come--out
with it. You want something?"
"I want your great name to do me a great service. I am going to France.
A letter of introduction, from you, will open doors which might be
closed to an unknown man like myself."
"What doors do you mean?" Sir James asked.
"The doors of the hospitals in Paris."
"Wait a minute, Vimpany. Have you any particular object in view?"
"A professional object, of course," the ready doctor answered. "I have
got an idea for a new treatment of diseases of the lungs; and I want to
see if the French have made any recent discoveries in that direction."
Sir James took up his pen--and hesitated. His ill-starred medical
colleague had been his fellow-student and his friend, in the days when
they were both young men. They had seen but little of each other since
they had gone their different ways--one of them, on the high road which
leads to success, the other down the byways which end in failure. The
famous surgeon felt a passing doubt of the use which his needy and
vagabond inferior might make of his name. For a moment his pen was held
suspended over the paper. But the man of great reputation was also a
man of great heart. Old associations pleaded with him, and won their
cause. His companion of former times left the house provided with a
letter of introduction to the chief surgeon at the Hotel Dieu, in
Paris.
Mr. Vimpany's next, and last, proceeding for that day, was to stop at a
telegraph-office, and to communicate economically with Lord Harry in
three words: "Expect me to-morrow."