I must needs believe you.
"Denys knows few things compared with you, but he knows them well.

He is a man not given to conjecture.

This I myself have noted.

He says he has seen the fevered and blooded for the most part die; the fevered and not blooded live.

I must needs believe him.
"Here, then, all is doubt.
"But thus much is certain; if I be bled, I must pay you a fee, and be burnt and excruciated with a hot iron, who am no felon.
"Pay a certain price in money and anguish for a doubtful remedy, that will I never.
"Next to money and ease, peace and quiet are certain goods, above all in a sick-room; but 'twould seem men cannot argue medicine without heat and raised voices; therefore, sir, I will essay a little sleep, and Denys will go forth and gaze on the females of the place, and I will keep you no longer from those who can afford to lay out blood and money in flebotomy and cautery." The old physician had naturally a hot temper; he had often during this battle of words mastered it with difficulty, and now it mastered him.
The most dignified course was silence; he saw this, and drew himself up, and made loftily for the door, followed close by his little boy and big basket.
But at the door he choked, he swelled, he burst.