He must be soothed." Basil answered in the same tone, with great coolness: "Of course your directions must be followed out, doctor.

I will endeavour to do so, but I hope it will not be inconsistent with them if you will leave me alone with my poor friend in this garden for an hour.
I want to watch him.

I assure you, Dr Colman, that I shall say very little to him, and that little shall be as soothing as--as syrup." The doctor wiped his eyeglass thoughtfully.
"It is rather dangerous for him," he said, "to be long in the strong sun without his hat.

With his bald head, too." "That is soon settled," said Basil composedly, and took off his own big hat and clapped it on the egglike skull of the professor.

The latter did not turn round but danced away with his eyes on the horizon.
The doctor put on his glasses again, looked severely at the two for some seconds, with his head on one side like a bird's, and then saying, shortly, "All right," strutted away into the house, where the three Misses Chadd were all looking out from the parlour window on to the garden.