"I did, but they're not there."

"I know, but there is a hotel there, Mr.--ah--Pulcifer said so."

The doctor and Miss Phipps looked at each other.

"He said there was a hotel there," went on Galusha. "Now if you would be
so kind as to--ah--take me to that hotel--"

Dr. Powers rubbed his chin.

"I should like to have you under my eye for a day or two," he said.

"Yes--yes, of course. Well, couldn't you motor over and see me
occasionally? It is not so very far, is it?... As to the additional
expense, of course I should expect to reimburse you for that."

Still the physician looked doubtful.

"It isn't the expense, exactly, Mr. Bangs," he said.

"I promise you I will not attempt to travel until you give your
permission. I realize that I am still--ah--a trifle weak--weak in the
knees," he added, with his slight smile. "I know you must consider me
to have been weak in the head to begin with, otherwise I shouldn't have
gotten into this scrape."

The doctor laughed, but he still looked doubtful.

"The fact is, Mr. Bangs," he began--and stopped. "The fact is--the
fact--"

Martha Phipps finished the sentence for him.

"The fact is," she said, briskly, "that Doctor Powers knows, just as
I or any other sane person in Ostable County knows, that Elmer Rogers'
hotel at the Centre isn't fit to furnish board and lodgin' for a healthy
pig, to say nothin' of a half sick man. You think he hadn't ought to go
there, don't you, doctor?"

"Well, Martha, to be honest with you--yes. Although I shouldn't want
Elmer to know I said it."

"Well, you needn't worry; he shan't know as far as I am concerned. Now
of course there's just one sensible thing for Mr. Bangs here to do, and
you know what that is, doctor, as well as I do. Now don't you?"

Powers smiled. "Perhaps," he admitted, "but I'd rather you said it,
Martha."

"All right, I'm goin' to say it. Mr. Bangs," turning to the nervous
Galusha, "the thing for you to do is to stay right here in this house,
stay right here till you're well enough to go somewhere else."

Galusha rose from his chair. "Oh, really," he cried, in great agitation,
"I can't do that. I can't, really, Miss Phipps."

"Of course I realize you won't be as comfortable here as you would be in
a hotel, in a GOOD hotel--you'd be more comfortable in a pigsty than you
would at Elmer's. But--"

"Miss Phipps--Miss Phipps, please! I AM comfortable. You have made me
very comfortable. I think I never slept bette