"
"Humph! Young enough to be a nuisance! A girl, eh?"
"Yes."
"Girls are not so bad as boys," he admitted.
"No, so some people think--good-morning." Dr. Norman went towards the
door.
"A girl, you say?" growled old Mr. Waldron again.
"Yes; good-morning."
"I say, don't be in such a hurry!"
"I really cannot stay longer at present; goodbye."
Dr. Norman opened the door and stood within it. Old Mr. Waldron fidgeted
in his chair, muttering--
"Horrid child! Hate children! Perfect nuisance!"
The doctor partly closed the door.
"I say, have you gone?" cried the old man, glancing round. "Dr. Norman,"
he called suddenly, "you can bring that brat in if it will be any
pleasure to you, and if you find me dead in half an hour my death will
lie at your door!"
The doctor at once accepted this grudging concession, and hastening to
the carriage, brought Sophy back in his arms.
"What the----" called out old Mr. Waldron when he saw the child. "Is she
ill?"
"Oh, no, only lame," replied the doctor, as he placed his burden in a
chair opposite to the old man.
"Now, Sophy," he admonished, "you will be a pleasant companion to this
gentleman until my return."
Sophy eyed her neighbour doubtfully.
"I'll try to," she replied, and so the doctor left them.
For some time this strangely assorted pair eyed each other in silence.
At length Sophy's gaze rested on the old man's foot where it lay in its
large slipper on the stool before him.
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