I'll stop the boy; we won't have no Fillgraves here." This, however, was a step to which Dr Thorne would not assent.

He endeavoured to explain to the anxious wife, that after what had passed he could not tender his medical services till they were again asked for.
"But you can slip in as a friend, you know; and then by degrees you can come round him, eh?
can't you now, doctor?
And as to the payment--" All that Dr Thorne said on the subject may easily be imagined.

And in this way, and in partaking of the lunch which was forced upon him, an hour had nearly passed between his leaving Sir Roger's bedroom and putting his foot in the stirrup.

But no sooner had the cob begun to move on the gravel-sweep before the house, than one of the upper windows opened, and the doctor was summoned to another conference with the sick man.
"He says you are to come back, whether or no," said Mr Winterbones, screeching out of the window, and putting all his emphasis on the last words.
"Thorne! Thorne! Thorne!" shouted the sick man from his sick-bed, so loudly that the doctor heard him, seated as he was on horseback out before the house.
"You're to come back, whether or no," repeated Winterbones, with more emphasis, evidently conceiving that there was a strength of injunction in that "whether or no" which would be found quite invincible.
Whether actuated by these magic words, or by some internal process of thought, we will not say; but the doctor did slowly, and as though unwillingly, dismount again from his steed, and slowly retrace his steps into the house.
"It is no use," he said to himself, "for that messenger has already gone to Barchester." "I have sent for Dr Fillgrave," were the first words which the contractor said to him when he again found himself by the bedside.
"Did you call me back to tell me that ?" said Thorne, who now realy felt angry at the impertinent petulance of the man before him: "you should consider, Scatcherd, that my time may be of value to others, if not to you." "Now don't be angry, old fellow," said Scatcherd, turning to him, and looking at him with a countenance quite different from any that he had shown that day; a countenance in which there was a show of manhood,--some show also of affection.

"You ain't angry now because I've sent for Fillgrave ?" "Not in the least," said the doctor very complacently.