h can't be made to blow any
good. I think I see my way to getting something out of this miserable
collapse of yours. I'll call in McMeekin."

"If McMeekin is a doctor, get him. He may not be able to do me any good,
but he'll give orders that I'm to be left quiet and that's all I want."

"McMeekin's no damned use as a doctor; but he'll----"

"Then get some one else. Surely he's not the only one there is."

"There are two others, but they're both sure to support you in any case,
whereas McMeekin----"

The way Titherington was discussing my illness annoyed me. I interrupted
him and tried my best to insult him.

"I don't want to be supported. I want to be cured. Not that any of them
can do that. I simply can't and won't have another blithering idiot let
loose at me. One's enough."

I thought that would outrage Titherington and drive him from my room.
But he made allowances for my condition and refused to take offence.

"McMeekin," he said, "sets up to be a blasted Radical, and is Vittie's
strongest supporter."

"In that case send for him at once. He'll probably poison me on purpose
and then this will be over."

"He's not such an idiot as to do that. He knows that if anything
happened to you we'd get another candidate."

Titherington's tone suggested that the other candidate would certainly
be my superior and that Vittie's chances against me were better than
they would be against any one else. I turned round with a groan and lay
with my face to the wall. Titherington went on talking.

"If you give McMeekin a good fee," he said, "say a couple of guineas,
he'll think twice about taking the chair at Vittie's meeting on the
twenty-fourth. I don't see why he shouldn't pay you a visit every day
from this to the election, and that, at two guineas a time, ought to
shut his mouth if it doesn't actually secure his vote."

I twisted my neck round and scowled at Titherington. He left the room
without shutting the door. I spent the next hour in hoping vehemently
that he would get the influenza himself. I would have gone on hoping
this if I had not been interrupted by the arrival of McMeekin. He did
all the usual things with stethoscopes and thermometers and he asked
me all the usual offensive questions. It seemed to me that he spent far
more than the usual time over this revolting ritual. I kept as firm a
grip on my temper as I could and as soon as he had finished asked him in
a perfectly calm and reasonable tone to be kin