You've disappointed me, Teddy, my boy, but I won't desert you.

Don't say you've no friends.

I'll stick by you, I rather fancy." The captain was probably able to form a pretty clear estimate how much of this glib story was fact and how much fiction.
Whatever the proportion may have been, he had to acknowledge that this friend of his held him in an uncomfortable grip, and had better--for the present at least--be conciliated.
So the two went out arm in arm for a stroll--the first of many they took during their fortnight's sojourn in town.
The news from Maxfield became unpleasingly damping.

Here, for instance, is a letter the doting father received from his son and heir a week after Ratman's arrival.
"Dear Pater,--Isn't it fizzing that old Roger is pretty nearly out of the wood?
The fever's come down like anything, and he's getting quite chirpy.

I can't fancy how a chap can hang on at all with nothing to eat but milk.