SCENE 2.--Bringing in the word _Bang_.

_Old gentleman sitting in an arm-chair, a table by his side, on which medicine bottles and a gruel basin are placed, and his leg, thickly bandaged, resting on a chair._

_Old Gent._--"Oh, this horrid pain! what shall I do? will no one come to help me? That stupid doctor has done me no good."

_Enter Maid-servant._--"Please, sir, the doctor has come. Shall I tell him to come upstairs?"

_Old Gent._--"Of course you must, and unless he is quick I shall die before he gets here. Oh dear! Oh dear!" (_Exit maid, banging the door after her._)

_Old Gent (shrieking out with pain)._--"Oh, you cruel creature, how can you bang the door in that way, when even the slightest footstep on the floor is enough to make me wild? Quick, doctor, quick!" (_Here the maid again appears, holding the door open for the doctor._)

_Doctor (with a large case of instruments under his arm)._--"Mr. Grumbleton, you appear to be very ill; can I do anything to relieve you? Let me feel your pulse."

_Old Gent._--"Oh, my leg!"

_Doctor._--"Your nerves are in a very excited state; you must have perfect quiet." (_Here the street door is heard to bang loudly, making the house shake._)

_Old Gent._--"Keep quiet, do you say! You might as well tell me to cut my leg off. There is no such thing as quiet in this house. That little good-for-nothing of a maid never comes into the room without shutting the door with a bang."

_Doctor._--"Be calm, my dear friend, and I will order you a soothing mixture, and as I leave the house I will insist upon perfect quiet being maintained." (_Then rebandaging the gentleman's leg, and placing him comfortably in the arm-chair, the doctor retires._)