From the top of the stairs we could hear Susan's thick, rancorous
voice raging fiercer and fiercer, drowned every now and then by the
man's savage roar of laughter. And, when for want of breath she would
flag for a moment, he would yell out encouragement to her, shouting:
"Bravo! Go it, my beauty, give it tongue! Bark, bark! I love to
hear you," applauding her, clapping his hands and stamping his feet.

"What a beast of a man," said my mother.

"He is really a most interesting man when you come to know him,"
explained my father.

Replied my mother, stiffly: "I don't ever mean to know him." But it
is only concerning the past that we possess knowledge.

The riot from below ceased at length, and was followed by a new voice,
speaking quietly and emphatically, and then we heard the doctor's step
again upon the stairs.

My mother held her purse open in her hand, and as the man entered the
room she went forward to meet him.

"How much do we owe you, Doctor?" said my mother. She spoke in a
voice trembling with severity.

He closed the purse and gently pushed it back towards her.

"A glass of beer and a chop, Mrs. Kelver," he answered, "which I am
coming back in an hour to cook for myself. And as you will be without
any servant," he continued, while my mother stood staring at him