human
I'll do it, this afternoon, and keep it as a reminder of a patient of whom I think a heap. No, I can't do it this afternoon, either, for he won't leave Jamie till he can leave him comfortably over the first stage. But by to-morrow afternoon, perhaps. We'll have to catch him on the fly, for I'm confident he'll be off the minute the youngster is out of danger. Well, I hope you know my friend well enough to appreciate that he's about the finest there is anywhere?
gpt
I'm beginning to know _you_ well enough, Dr. Burns, to see that you care more to have your friends appreciated than to win praise yourself.
human
No, no--oh, Cesar, no! I've not reached such a sublime height of altruism as that. To tell you the honest truth--which is supposed to be good for the soul--I'm horribly envious of Jack Leaver for having done that stunt this morning.
gpt
Envious? Of course you are. At the same time would you have taken it away from him and have done it yourself, if you had had the chance?
human
Trust a woman to confront a man with the unthinkable, and then expect him to take credit for not having been guilty of it! Would I have snatched a juicy bone away from a starving lion? That's what Leaver has been all these months. It's what any man gets to be when his job is taken away from him and he doesn't know when he will get another. No--at the same time that I'm envious I'm genuinely happy that the lion got his bone. He needed it. It's going to make a well lion of him; he is one now. You're glad, too, aren't you?
gpt
Of course I am.
human
Good! Then, if I can wheedle him before the camera, you'll be interested in making a picture of him that Ellen and I shall want to frame and look at every day?
gpt
I will give you my amateur's best, certainly, Dr. Burns.
human
Prunes and prisms! he exclaimed, and broke into a laugh.
gpt
I didn't expect that, from a girl like you. I should have expected you to--well, never mind. I was on the verge of being impertinent, I'm afraid. Forgive me, will you, for what I might have said? I'll bring him over at the first opportunity.
human
Red, this is certainly the unkindest cut of all! I haven't minded your other prescriptions, but to insist on giving a well man the worst dose of his experience to take--
gpt
Stuff and nonsense! A bad prescription--to go across the street and let the prettiest photographer in the United States take a sun picture of you before you leave town? Besides, you owe it to us. I haven't the smallest kind of a likeness of you. I want a nice big one, to use in my advertisements. I only wish I had a picture of you 'as you were,' to put beside the 'as you are.' It would be telling. 'The great Burns's greatest cure. The celebrated Leaver of Baltimore as he was when Burns finished with him.' I'll send you a dozen copies of the paper.
human
Please, Dr. Leaver. Mrs. Red Pepper Burns added her plea.
gpt
Red really wants it very much, and so do I. You admit you have no photograph to send us, and we know quite well you won't go and have one made by Mr. Brant, as you should. So please let Miss Ruston try her art. We think you owe it to us.
human
I admit that argument tells, Mrs. Burns, he said.
gpt
I suppose it is ungracious of me, but, to tell the truth, I've always preferred to be able to say I had no portraits of myself.
human
Oh, I see, Burns broke in.
gpt
We're not considering, Ellen, the urgent demands for a popular bachelor surgeon's photograph. It's precisely like Jack not to hand them out to the ladies, or to the newspaper men. All right, old chap. Give us what we want and we'll have the plate smashed. Now will you be good? Come, let's go over. If you really mean to leave to-night this is our last chance.
human
Will you take a shot at my friend before he goes? Burns asked Charlotte.
gpt
He hates standing up to be shot at, but I have him primed for the ordeal.
human
Must it be a shot, or may I make a portrait?
gpt
I want a portrait, replied Burns, promptly.
human
Your best indoor work--Brant and the Misses Kendall put on their mettle to rival it.