"Certainly. There is some beef-tea ready. Here it is. Shall I feed you?"

"Thank you. My left arm is tied up, and this broken finger is very
painful. Bat I am giving you no end of trouble. I don't know how I shall
be able to repay you and Mr. Fortescue for all your kindness."

"_Ach Gott!_ Don't mention it, my dear sir. Mr. Fortescue said you were to
have every attention; and when a fellow-man has been broken all to pieces
it is our duty to do for him what we can. Who knows? Perhaps some time I
may be broken all to pieces myself. But I will not ride your fiery horses.
My weight is seventeen stone, and if I was to throw myself off a galloping
horse as you did, _ach Gott!_ I should be broken past mending."

Mr. Geist made an attentive and genial nurse, discoursing so pleasantly
and fluently that, greatly to my satisfaction (for I was very weak), my
part in the conversation was limited to an occasional monosyllable; but he
said nothing on the subject as to which I was most anxious for
information--Mr. Fortescue--and, as he clearly desired to avoid it, I
refrained from asking questions that might have put him in a difficulty
and exposed me to a rebuff.

I found out afterward that neither he nor Ramon ever discussed their
master, and though Mrs. Tomlinson, my third nurse (a buxom, healthy,
middle-aged widow, whose position seemed to be something between that of
housekeeper and upper servant), was less reticent, it was probably because
she had so little to tell.

I learned, among other things, that the habits of the household were
almost as regular as those of a regiment, and that the servants, albeit