"Now draw the screen, and give his lungs a chance; no draughts must blow upon him, you know." Then he drew Walter aside.

"Do you want to know the truth?
Well, then, his life hangs on a thread.

The gout is creeping upward, and will inevitably kill him if we can't get it down.

Nothing but heroic remedies will do that, and it's three to five against them.

What do you say ?" "I dare not--I dare not.