"Why not you?"
"He has more time: I am busy just now."
"Oh! but Gilbert, how can you be so composed about it? You won't mind business, for an hour or two, in a case of this sort—when your friend is at the point of death!"
"He is not, I tell you!"
"For anything you know, he may be: you can't tell till you have seen him.—At all events, he must have met with some terrible accident, and you ought to see him: he'll take it very unkind of you if you don't."
"Confound it! I can't. He and I have not been on good terms, of late."
"O my dear boy! Surely, surely, you are not so unforgiving as to carry your little differences to such a length as—"
"Little differences, indeed!" I muttered.
"Well, but only remember the occasion! Think how—"
"Well, well, don't bother me now—I'll see about it," I replied.
