Evening Dress. Howells William Dean

Roberts: "Oh, if I could only stay and think for you, dearest! But I can't, and you must do the best you can. Do keep repeating it all over! It's the only way – "

      Mrs. Campbell, from the door: "Agnes!"

      Mrs. Roberts: "Amy, I'm coming instantly."

      Mrs. Campbell: "I declare I shall go without you!"

      Mrs. Roberts: "And I shouldn't blame you a bit, Amy! And if it turns out to be the grippe, Edward, don't lose an instant. Send for the doctor as fast as the district messenger can fly; give him his car fare, and let one come for me; and jump into bed and cover up warm, and keep up the nourishment with the whiskey; there's another bottle in the sideboard; and perhaps you'd better break a raw egg in it. I heard of one person that they gave three dozen raw eggs a day to in typhoid fever, and even then he died; so you must nourish yourself all you can. And – "

      Mrs. Campbell: "Agnes! I'm going!"

      Mrs. Roberts: "I'm coming! Edward!"

      Roberts: "Well?"

      Mrs. Roberts: "There is something else, very important. And I can't think of it!"

      Roberts: "Liebig's extract of beef?"

      Mrs. Roberts, distractedly: "No, no! And it wasn't oysters, either, though they're very nourishing, too. Oh, dear! What – "

      Mrs. Campbell: "Going, Agnes!"

      Mrs. Roberts: "Coming, Amy! Try to think of something else that I ought to remember, Edward!"

      Roberts: "Some word to the girls when they come in?"

      Mrs. Roberts: "No!"

      Roberts: "About the children, something?"