Wilkie Collins

A House To Let Wilkie Collins

I had been living at Tunbridge Wells and nowhere else, going on for ten years, when my medical man very clever in his profession, and the prettiest player I ever saw in my life of a hand at Long Whist, which was a noble and a princely game before Short was heard of said to me, one day, as he sat feeling my pulse on the actual sofa which my poor dear sister Jane worked before her spine came on, and laid her on a board for fifteen months at a stretch the most upright woman that ever lived said to me, "What we want, ma'am, is a fillip.""Good gracious, goodness gracious, Doctor Towers!" says I, quite startled at the man, for he was so christened himself: "don't talk as if you were alluding to people's names; but say what you mean.""I mean, my dear ma'am, that we want a little change of air and scene.""Bless the man!" said I; "does he mean we or me!""I mean you, ma'am.""Then Lard forgive you, Doctor Towers," I said; "why don't you get into a habit of expressing yourself in a straightforward manner, like a loyal subject of our gracious Queen Victoria, and a member of the Church of England?"