Finally, he nodded, turning away from a still-whispering Habrunt and
cutting off the other in mid-sentence.
He was an iron-willed, dutiful man who knew how to do what must be done
when called upon to make decisions. It was not his business to judge
the Master of this House if he, too, did what he saw fit. But he
sighed, a heavy, tired gesture, as if all the evils of the world were a
weight upon his shoulders alone.
Out of a vague sense of fairness, he decided to examine the smaller boy
first, the gentle one who had been innocently victimized, while saving
the bully, on Habrunt's judicious advice, until second.
The Physician called for the two boys with their missing single eyes to
be brought to him. Then, while Si'Wren watched with passionate
sympathy, the Physician prepared to go to work on them.
"Eh--" the Physician hesitated, nodding indistinctly in the direction
of the two injured boys, "--which one did you say first?"
Habrunt made an end of niceties and reached forth an arm,
simultaneously barring the one while favoring the other with one and
the same gesture.
"Ah!" the Physician nodded.
The guilty boy tearfully begged to be helped first or at least at the
same time, but was firmly commanded by his own father to wait his
proper turn.
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