Page 369 - tender-is-the-night

enter; but the man shook his head.
‘It’s you, Doctor Diver, YOU, the very man. I went to
Doctor Ladislau because you were not to be found, Doctor
Diver, and because Doctor Gregorovius is not expected un-
til the nightfall, and I would not wait. No, sir! I would not
wait a minute after my son told me the truth.’
He came up menacingly to Dick, who kept his hands
loose enough to drop him if it seemed necessary. ‘My son is
here for alcoholism, and he told us he smelt liquor on your
breath. Yes, sir!’ He made a quick, apparently unsuccess-
ful sniff. ‘Not once, but twice Von Cohn says he has smelt
liquor on your breath. I and my lady have never touched
a drop of it in our lives. We hand Von Cohn to you to be
cured, and within a month he twice smells liquor on your
breath! What kind of cure is that there?’
Dick hesitated; Mr. Morris was quite capable of making
a scene on the clinic drive.
‘After all, Mr. Morris, some people are not going to give
up what they regard as food because of your son—‘
‘But you’re a doctor, man!’ cried Morris furiously. ‘When
the workmen drink their beer that’s bad ‘cess to them—but
you’re here supposing to cure—‘
‘This has gone too far. Your son came to us because of
kleptomania.’
‘What was behind it?’ The man was almost shrieking.
‘Drink—black drink. Do you know what color black is? It’s
black! My own uncle was hung by the neck because of it,
you hear? My son comes to a sanitarium, and a doctor reeks
of it!’

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