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Cu 31924022258697
Cu 31924022258697
HENRY W. SAGE
189:
Cornell University Library
PS 2025.D6
Dr. Breen's practice a novel.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022258697
DE. BEEEN'S PEACTICE.
A NOVEL.
By W. D. HOWDLLS.
^oa&e iip ^i{tatn Dean potoelle.
'k
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THE ELEVATOR: THE SLEEPING CAR: THE PARLOR CAR:
THE REGISTER: AN INDIAN GIVER, a Comedy: THE
SMOKING CAR, a Farce: BRIDE ROSES, a Scene: ROOM 45,
a Farce. Each, i8mo, 50 cents.
A NOVEL
BY
WILLIAM D. HOWELLS
AUTH08 OF " THE RISE OF SILAS LAPHAM," "
A MODERN INSTANCB,**
"INDIAN SUMMER," ETC
^*f?t^lMS
Copyright, 1881,
By W. D. HoweixS.
But after the bath they are all of one mind ; they lay
their shawls on the warm sand, and, spreading out
their hair to dry, they doze in the sun, in such coils
pected any one to find her there twice, and if she had
the table and the gaunt hag which contains the mail
duties.
player ;
" it 's astonishing how you beat me.''
on your shawl " She lifted the knit shawl lying be-
side her on the bench, and laid it across the other's
lingering near her. "I was wrong to let you sit down
at all after you had got heated."
" Well, Grace, I had to," said she who was called
whole time. I 'U just sit here till the barge comes in.
I '11 wander out that way and look for her." She
indicated the wilderness generally.
" Thanks," said Louise. She now gratefully drew
her shawl up over her shoulders, and faced about on
the bench so as to command an easy view of the
arriving barge. The other met it on her way to the
you?"
"Yes," she said, with lady-like sweetness and a
sort of business-like alertness.
" "Well," suggested the driver, " this is for Miss
Grace Breen, M. D."
" For me, thank you," said the young lady. " I 'm
Dr. Breen." She put out her hand for the little pack-
age from the homceopathic pharmacy in Boston ; and
the driver yielded it with a blush that reddened him
to his hair. "Well," he said slowly, staring at the
handsome girl, who did not visibly share his embar-
rassment, "they told me you was the oiu ; but I
could n't seem to get it through me. I thought it
I
as strictly to account for every word and deed as she
" You don't mean that 's your doctor ? " he scarcely
more than whispered.
" Yes, I do," answered Mrs. Maynard. " Is n't she
too lovely ? And she 's just as ffood ! She used to
And that 's the reason I 'm here. I shall always rec-
ommend this air to anybody with lung difficulties.
It 's the greatest thirig ! I 'm almost another person.
Oh, you need n't look after her, Mr. Libby ! There 's
should say
Grace handed the little girl over to her nurse, and
went to her own room, where she found her mother
waiting to go down to tea.
" Where is Mrs. Maynard ?
" asked Mrs. Breen.
"Out on the croquet-ground," answered the daughter.
" I should think it would be damp," suggested Mrs.
Breen.
" She will come in when the tea-beU rings. She
would n't come in now, if I told her."
18 DR. BEEEN'S PRACTICE.
" Well," said the elder lady, " for a person who lets
her doctor pay her board, I think she 's very indepen-
dent."
" I wish you would n't speak of that, mother/' said
the girl
" I can't help it, Grace. It 's ridiculous, — that 's
" No," Grace admitted. " Jane 's getting her ready
to go down with us. Louise is talking with a gen-
tleman who came over on the steamer with her
he 's camping on the beach near here. I did n't wait
to hear particulars."
door, Mrs. Breen took one hand and Grace the other,
" Oh, I 'm ever so much hetter, to-night. The air 's
the case."
"No matter. Even as a divorced woman, you
oughtn't to go on in this way."
" Well, I would n't, with every one. But it 's quite
II.
" That 's so. The air 's just splendid. It 's doing every-
thing for me."
"It's these pine woods, back o' here. Every
breath on 'em does ye good. It 's the balsam in it.
she should like to try it. " It 's just bronchial with
mother in the house. But you just tell her about the
" My brother."
" Oh ! Oh, yes ! But mine 's only bronchial. I think
some more cold. But that shows that it does n't get
" I don't think the night air was the worst thing
about it, Louise," said Grace bluntly.
" You mean the damp from the sand ? I put on
my rubbers."
"I don't mean the damp sand," said Grace, begin-
took the cold when I was sitting there after our game
of croquet, with my shawl off. Don't you think so ?
she wheedled.
" Perhaps," said Grace.
dignantly.
" By being a doctor."
Grace opened her lips to speak, but she was not a
ready person, and she felt the thrust. Before she
could say anything Mrs. Maynard went on :
" There
is n't one of them that does n't think you 're much
more scandalous than if you were the greatest flirt
course."
" I mean that you must n't even have the appear-
ance of liking admiration, or what you call atten-
" Why, I suppose that 's his boat, out there, now."
"
" Try it ? What are you talking about, Louise ?
sors with the stern passivity of a fate. " Cut it," she
commanded, and Mr. Libby knelt before her and
obeyed. "Thanks," she said, taking back the scis-
sors ; and now she sat down again, and began delib-
erately to put up her work in her handkerchief.
" I '11 go out and get my things. I won't be gone
her so."
DK. BREEN'S PRACTICE. 37
pricious !
" "
No, dou't. But don't you ?
" She said she was n't a good sailor. Perhaps she
thought we were too young. She must be older than
you."
" Yes, and you, too ! " cried Mrs. Maynard, with
good-natured derision.
"She doesn't look old," returned Mr. Libby.
" She 's twenty-eight. How old are you ?
" Brown."
" And her eyes "
?
and Grace saw him pulling out to the sail boat before
doors, upon a theory that the dew was on, and that it
" and it 's my fault ! I did it. I sent her off to sail
"
with that ridiculous Mr. Libby !
" Why ? " asked Mrs. Breen, in her turn, with un-
broken tranquillity.
" Because I am a fool, and I could n't help him lie
wonted recognition.
She did not look round at Mrs. Breen, who said, " I
bruised."
rectly.
" Yes," the first admitted, " you do miss the oysters.
" Burn off ? " cried Mrs. Alger. " I should think it
had !
" The other ladies laughed.
" And you 'U see," added Barlow, " that the wind 'U
change at noon, and we 'U have it cooler."
''
If it 's as hot on the water as it is here," said Mrs.
my boys !
flattered coo.
!
" Oh, don't have it cut off " pleaded a young girl,
loose after the bath, into her hand. Mrs. Frost put
her arm round the girl's waist, and pulled her down
against her shoulder. Upon reflection she also kissed
her.
m.
" I did n't ask," said the girl. "I would n't," she
added, in devotion to the whole truth.
" Well, it is all of the same piece," said Mrs. Breen.
Grace did not ask what the piece was. She remained
staring at the dark wall across the sea, and spiritually
" Well, I hope you will meet 'em. But I guess you
better go back to the house. Hey ? Wmit ? Well,
come along, then, if they ain't past doctorin' by the
time they git ashore ! Pretty well wrapped'up, any
way !
with you
" Take hold of the girl. Barlow .'
you see the boat 's drivin' right on t' the sand ? She '11
anchor
!
" she shrieked in reply. He answered her
with a despairing grin and a shake of the head.
"They can't. What has your boat gone out for,
then?"
" To pick 'em up out the sea. But they '11 never
git 'em alive. Look how she slaps her boom int' the
water ! Well ! He doos know how to handle a boat
!
the sea, and fall over into the boat, hovering and
weather, do ye ?
" shouted Barlow. " They 've got
!
the folks all safe enough. I tell ye I see 'em " he
cried, at a wild look of doubt in her eyes. " Eun to
which she would have shrunk. " Well, Grace " she
began, with a voice and look before which the other
quailed, " I hope you are satisfied ! All the time I
was clinging to that wretched boat I was wondering
how you would feel Yes, my last thoughts were of
you. I pitied you. I did n't see how you could ever
IV.
availed her, for she did not seem much the worse for
her adventure : she had a little fever, and she was
slightly hoarser ; but she had died none of the deaths
that she projected during the watches of the night,
and for which she had chastened the spirit of her
physician by the repeated assurance that she forgave
her everything, and George Maynard everything, and
hoped that they would be good to her poor little Bella.
She had the child brought from its crib to her own
bed, and moaned over it ; but with the return of day
and the duties of life she appeared to feel that she
the little girl whom she had on her knee, and who
was playing with the pin at her throat, in apparent
" Oh, never mind it," said Grace, fondling the child,
came ?
she added.
" Oh, well,
!
dence in me."
" I have n't lost confidence in you, Grace. I don't
see how you can talk so. You can give me bread
piUs, if you like, or air piUs, and I wiU take them
gladly. I believe in you perfectly. But I do think
" Mrs.
Maynard interpreted.
your camp ?
" I walked."
" In all that rain ?
whether you would let the mere fact that you had n't
been introduced have any weight with you ? " The
young man silently appealed to Grace, who darkened
angrily, and before he could speak Mrs. Maynard
interposed. "No, no, you sha'n't ask her. I want
" " " "" !
" And you 're quite right, Mr. Libby," said Grace
haughtily. She bade him good-morning ; but he fol-
DE. BREEN'S PRACTICE. 71
her triumph.
" Miss Breen — Do let me speak to you, please !
to forgive you."
"
glister ; the air was brisk, and the breeze blew balm
from the heart of the pine forest. " Miss Breen," he
broke out, " I wish you 'd take a little dash through
the woods with me. I 've got a broad-track buggy,
" "
" Don't say no. Miss Breen," pleaded the gay voice.
" No, I don't think she is. But — " She paused,
"
do" —
" Are you talking of Mrs. Maynard ?
" asked Grace.
" They are all saying that you ought to give up
the case to Dr. Mulbridge. But I hope you won't.
physician " —
" Thank you," answered Grace. " There is no dan-
ger of her dying. But it seems to me that she has
him.''
" Oh, I 'm sorry," said the young man. " Then
you won't be able to drive with me this morning ? I
face.
who said, "I hope you are not doing anything im-
pulsive " ; and she answered, " E"o, I had quite made
up my mind to it last night."
know they 're separated, and that she 's going to' take
steps for a divorce ?
" "
his fervor, and the light it cast upon her first doubts
of him. " Of course, I only know the affair from
her report, and I haven't concerned myself in it,
Libby gave a laugh. " And you like that ? You 're
easily pleased."
" Is it important ?
" asked the elder woman.
" Quite," replied Grace, with an accent at once of
surprise and decision.
" You may come in," said the other reluctantly, and
she opened a door into a room at the side of the hall.
"You may give Dr. Mulbridge my card, if you
please,'' said Grace, before she turned to go iuto this
room : and the other took it, and left her to find a
chair for herself. It was a country doctor's office,
saw her, or before she could explain that she had got
one of the gentlemen at the hotel — she resolved
disturb a doctor."
" I mean," she began again, " that I am not sure
that I am justified in disturbing you."
into his vigilant face, in which she was not sure there
was not a hovering derision, she could not continue.
" I am !
" Oh !
" said Grace, realizing his natural error, with
tion had disgusted her with it, and she had perceived
that after all there is nothing better for a girl, even a
girl who is a doctor of medicine, than a ladylike
manner. Now, however, she wished that she could
do or say something aggressively mannish, for she
felt herself dwindling away to the merest femininity,
under a scrutiny which had its fascination, whether
agreeable or disagreeable. " Ton must," he said, with
really unwarrantable patronage, " have found that the
study of medicine has its difficulties, — you must
have been very strongly drawn to it."
ness ; but still she did not speak. She merely looked
at him, while he halted and stammered on.
" Personally, — I — should be — obliged — I
I
should honored — — —
feel has nothing
I do I It to
" Oh, no !
" replied the girl, with a certain dreamy-
abstraction. "I had heard that you made some such
distinction —I remember, now. But I couldn't
realize anything so ridiculous."
Dr. Mulbridge colored " Excuse me," he said, " if,
ridiculous."
She did not make any direct reply. " But I sup-
posed that you only made Jthis distinction, as you call
" No, no !
" she gasped, piillmg her hand away.
" I am perfectly well." Then she was silent for a
after dinner."
too, if" —
" Oh, no, no ! I shall be only too glad of your
help, and your " — he was going to say advice, but
Eufus ?
" Who ? " repeated her son absently. " Dr. Breen."
" Doctor Breen ? That girl a doctor ?
"Yes."
" I thought she was some saucy thing. Well, upon
my word !
" exclaimed Mrs. Mulbridge. " So that is
" ISTo," said her son, with what she knew to be pro-
fessional finality. " Mother, if you can hurry dinner
a little, I shall be glad. I have to drive over to
sible."
" Who was the young man with her ? Her beau, I
guess."
VI
a cursory obeisance.
"We must ask you, Miss Gleason," said Mrs. Alger.
" Tour admiration of Dr. Breen clothes you with au-
thority and responsibility."
" I can't understand it at all," Miss Gleason confessed.
" But I 'm sure there 's nothing in it. He is n't her
equal She would feel that it was n't right — under
the circumstances."
" But if Mrs. Maynard was well it would be a fair
know !
wearily.
" Very weU, then !
She did not spare him certain apologies for the dis-
added ;
" she hxis pneumonia."
" I supposed — I was afraid so," faltered the girl.
" Yes." He looked into her eyes with even more
seriousness than he spoke. " Has she friends here ?
he asked.
"ISTo; her hushand is in Cheyenne, out on the
plains."
" Tour cold has taken an acute form you will have
;
"
to go to bed
"
family
Spent with this ordeal, Grace left her at last, and
went out on the piazza, where she found Libby re-
" Oh, I know. And some day I will teU you how
' — if you will let me."
It seemed a question ; and she did not know what
it was that kept her sUent and breathless and hot iu
the throat. " I don't like to do it," she said at last.
of self-applause.
" I should be sorry," interposed Mrs. Alger au-
thoritatively, " if we had said anything to influence
8
114 DR BEEEN'S PRACTICE.
be asked why, and then she added, " I think she 's
ever saw," she said, and walked out over the grass
sex. I have always felt that there was the great diffi-
" Magnificent ?
meeting you!'
" I am very sorry," said Grace coldly. " I should
dislike being controlled myself, and I should dislike
won't be lost."
humble an ambition."
" I don't think it so," said Grace briefly.
"No."
He looked at her quizzically, as if this were much
droller than if she had cared. " I don't understand
why you should have gone into it. You told me, I
ful that she made no reply, and left him to his con-
"
do you find Mrs. Maynard to-day ? she asked.
himself. *
"No!"
" And you did n't make it come ?
!
" Of course not
He looked at her and laughed.
122 DK. bkeen's practice.
her a while."
"Do you really think," she palpitated, "that I
might ? Do you think I ought ? I 'm afraid I
oughtn't" —
"Not if your devotion is hurtful to her ?
" he asked.
" Send some one else to her for a while. Any one
can take care of her for a few hours."
"I could n't leave her — feeling as I do about her."
VII.
proachfully.
feel"
"
" It 's the best thing you could possibly do. But
you 're not feeling very bobbish now." A woman
respects the word a man uses, not because she would
have chosen it, but because she thinks that he has
an exact intention in it, which could not be recon-
veyed in a more feminine phrase. In this way slang
was."
"I don't see why you say that." She weakly found
comfort in the praise which she might once have
resented as patronage.
" I don't see why I should n't," he retorted.
" Because I am not fit to be trusted at all."
" Do you mean " —
" "
" Yes. I 've had her put to rights. She was n't
much damaged."
She was silent a moment, while he stood looking
down at her in the chair into which she had sunk.
" Does it take you long ?
"Yes."
A sudden impulse, unreasoned and unreasonable,
in which there seemed hope of some such atonement,
or expiation, as the same ascetic nature would once
have found in fasting or the scourge, prevailed with
her. She rose. "Mr. libby," she panted, "if you
win let me, I should like to go with you in your
boat. Do you think it will be rough ?
that day."
" Oh, I 'm not afraid," said Grace. She stepped
from the dory into the boat, and he flung out the
dory's anchor and followed. The sail went up with
a pleasant clucking of the tackle, and the light wind
fiUed it. Libby made the sheet fast, and, sitting down
in the stern on the other side, took the tiller and
" "
the Ulusion."
" It will make it reality. But you don't mean it ?
"Yes; why not?"
" I don't know. But I could n't have dreamt of
smoking in your presence. And we take the liberty
to dream very strange things."
" Yes," she said, " it 's shocking what things we do
dream of people. But am I so forbidding ?
" she
" Then smoke the last," she said, offering bim the
things back.
" No, go on. I 'U smoke it."
sponded.
" Do you know them ? " asked Grace.
" No " he laughed. " But ladies like
!
to take these
she sighed.
" Yes, there 's nothing better in aU the world than
a sail. It is all the world while it lasts. A boat 's
" No, it got me. The tide came in, and the seal
beat."
«I am glad of that."
" "
lighter."
with a laugL
He rolled his head again to one side sheepishly.
"
" Serious ?
" She behaved well before that. She did n't tip
she asked
" " " "
morning ?
fore we landed."
The old town had come out of the haze of the dis-
woman ?
frankly."
" And you would n't treat everybody so ?
" Oh !
" she said. " You treat me upon a theory."
" Don't you like that ? We treat everybody upon
a theory " —
"Yes, I know" —
" And I should tell you the worst of anything at
She waited a while, and then she asked, " And what
is your theory of me ?
it, too."
" Afraid of me ?
" That is n't the word, perhaps. We 'U say ashamed
had some little hope you would tolerate me, after all
You looked like a friend I used to have. — Do you
mind my telling you ?
" Oh, no. Though I can't say that it 's ever very
comfortable to be told that you look like some one
else."
" No."
charge of it."
me?"
"Tolerated? "he echoed.
This vexed her. " Yes, tolerate ! Everybody, in-
" " " "
" No."
" I believe you, and I forgive you. No, no !
" she
cried, at a demonstration of protest from him, " don't
!
speak again
He obeyed, instantly, implicitly. With the tUIer
in his hand he looked past her and guided the boat's
"Mr. Libby!"
" Oh, I must speak now ! You were always think-
ing, because you had studied a man's profession, that
of a man in him !
" No, no !
" she protested. " I did n't think that.
the boat, and that she had chosen to come back with
him, when he had offered to have her driven home
from Leyden. " No, you are not to blame," she said, at
eyes. She did not press her question, but, " Thank
you for reminding me that I invited myself to go
with you," she said, with feeble bitterness.
ing."
" No," she murmured, " I can believe that of you.
I do believe it. I take back what I said. Don't let
in the situation.
" I don't mind it so much on my account, but oh !
was ungentlemanly
" It was whatever you Hke. I must be to blame.
DK. BKEEN'S PRACTICE. 155
oars, and leaning forward upon them, " that she has
gone on letting you think I believed there was going
to be a storm? She knew perfectly well that I
did n't mind what Adams said ; he was always croak-
ing." She sat looking at him in a daze, but she could
glad of it!"
" She has tortured me
!
" cried the girl. " But you —
" " !
you, when you saw that I did n't believe there was
going to he any storm, why did you — why didn't
you" —
" I did n't believe it either ! It was Mrs. Maynard
that proposed the sail, but when I saw that you did n't
like it I was glad of any excuse for putting it off.
of no use."
" ;
about you."
" You ought to have considered her, though," she
said gently.
me with you."
" It did at first. But now I can see that I was
wrong. I wished to tell you that. It is n't credit-
" Are you going away ? " she softly asked. " Wliy
need you ? I know that people always seem to
think they can't be friends after — such a thing as
this. But why should n't we ? I respect you, and I
not mistaken."
"Well, stay at least till Mrs. Maynard is well,
ful surprise.
"
heart.
you ashore."
tion or reproach him. " Oh, no, thank you," she said
weakly. " I won't trouble you. I —I will wait till
VIII.
you ?
"Yes."
Her mother pushed her spectacles down again,
in the same tone. " You have been with him every
the girL
168 DR. breen's practice.
" Did n't you ask him to let you go vnth. him this
her eyes, and blurred the sea and sky together where
she saw their meeting at the horizon line.
" Well," said her mother, " then that is the end of
it, I presume."
170 DR. beeen's practice.
" Yes, that 's the end/' said Grace. " But — I felt
alone !
" With a long sigh she took back the burden
those men Don't you ? " she fluted. " Mrs. May-
!
her own.
"Of course," said Miss Gleason enthusiastically,
" you can't confess it. But I know you are capable
go."
Then she said, " I want you to tell me just how bad
Dr. Mulbridge thinks I am."
"He has never expressed any anxiety," Grace
began, with her inaptness at evasion.
" Of course he has n't," murmured the sick woman.
" He is n't a fool ! What does he say ?
neglected. " Don't let the child be all dirt when her
father comes."
" Mother will look after Bella/' Grace replied, too
you love him, and that he must love you, yet. It 's
father's place with her ? That 's the worst about it.
" That 's the way I used to talk when I was first
and said, with a smile, " Oh, I think so. What made
you think she would n't ?
" Go !
when she faltered in return, " Are you — you are not
going home ?
DK. BREEN'S PRACTICE. 181
IX.
his, and bowing over her from his lank height listened
to her report of his wife's state, while he held his lit-
tle girl on his left arm, and the child fondly pressed
her cheek against his bearded face, to which he had
quietly lifted her as soon as he alighted from Libby's
buggy.
Libby introduced Grace as Dr. Breen, and drove
on, and Maynard gave her the title whenever he ad-
dressed her, with a perfect effect of single-minded-
had been.
" I don't know whether I ought to let you go in,"
"Yes" —
184 DR. breen's practice.
" Sleep ?
" Maynard repeated, looking wanly at her.
" / never sleep. I 'd as soon think of digesting."
After she had given him the needed instructions
he rose from the rocking-chair in which he had been
softly swinging to and fro, and followed her out into
the corridor, caressing with his large hand the child
that lay on his shoulder. "Of course," she said,
"
" Yes'm," said Barlow. " What can I do for you ?
"Oh !
any woman.
"With his experience of other women's explicit and
even eager obedience, the resistance which he had
at first encountered in Grace gave zest to her final
Jocelyn's.
It was her fashion to approach any subject upon
which she wished her son to talk as if they had
already talked of it, and he accepted this convention
pect that she does n't like me very well. You could
meet on common ground there: you don't like her
daughter."
" They must be a pair of them," said Mrs. Mul-
bridge immovably. " Did her mother like her study-
?
ing for a doctor
" Yes, I understand so. Her mother is progressive
inside.
" That 's where Mrs. Breen would n't agree with
you. Perhaps because it would make the bold things
happy to have masters, though she does n't say so.
it ! Stop !
guess she would n't have been alive to tell the tale, if
matter," said her son, betraying now for the first time
that he had been aware of any knowledge of it on
her part. That was their way : though they seldom
told each other anything, and went on as if they knew
nothing of each other's affairs, yet when they recog-
"Who?"
" The young fellow that came with her, that day."
I 've had my day, and I 'm not one of the old fools
think" —
She stopped, and shut her lips firmly.
" Speak up, mother
!
" he cried
DK. BREEN'S PRACTICE. 203
You can stay here as long as you live. But it has n't
come to that, yet. I don't know that she cares any-
some one else, she 'd have taken him, in this broken-
up state of hers. Besides, she has formed the habit
say no."
While he eagerly pressed these arguments his
mother listened stonily, without apparent interest or
sympathy. But at the end she asked, " How are you
going to support a wife ? Your practice here won't
She '11 have notions of her own. If she 's like the
I can see that, and she can see it, too. It makes a
great difference with girls. I don't know as she 'd
the world of you, and flatter you up, and they 're as
force."
" Oh, you 've only seen the sick married ones. I
" Pshaw !
" cried her son. " If she cares for me at
ask her."
;
the girl.
been for Adam, there would n't have been any woman,
you know and you could n't blame her
; for what hap-
pened after she got going ?
" There was no gleam of
insinuation in his melancholy eye, and Grace listened
without quite knowing what to make of it aU. " And
then I suppose he wasn't punctual at meals, and
stood round talking politics at night, when he ought
to have been at home with his family ?
" Who ?
" asked Grace.
" Adam," replied Mr. Maynard lifelessly. " Well,
they got along pretty well outside," he continued.
" Some of the children did n't turn out just what you
might have expected ; but raising children is mighty
uncertain business. Yes, they got along." He ended
his parable with a sort of weary sigh, as if oppressed
by experience. Grace looked at his slovenly figure,
You have to try other things, and find out that there
now, and Mrs. Maynard is all for the new deal ; it 's
I suppose the air will be good for her, out there. You
doctors are sending lots of your patients our way, now."
thetic. " Why, I 'm told," he said, " that they have to
blanket the apple-trees while the fruit is setting
here. You come out with us, doctor, and see that
country, and you '11 know what I mean."
She had not come to her final liking for him without
a season of serious misgiving, but after that she
rested in peace upon what every one knowing him
felt to be his essential neighborliness. Her wonder
had then come to be how he could marry Louise,
when they sat together on the seaward piazza, and
he poured out his easy talk, unwearied and unwearying,
while, with one long, lank leg crossed upon the other,
him that the side of a house was good enough for me.
talk with you," he added, " about what you are going
to do, — about your future. Will you come ?
lead the way down from the piazza, and out upon one
of the sandy avenues toward the woods, in which it
DK. BKEEN'S PRACTICE. 217
vulgar girl
" ISTo, no," he protested, laughing in recollection of
the scene. " You were all right, and I was in a fix
""
giving way. I can tell you, now that it 's all over. I
up."
" But what shall you do then ?
band. Think" —
She struggled to her feet as if he were opposing a
palpable resistance, so strongly she felt the pressure
I won't be discouraged."
" Yes, yes, you must ! I will not think of it ! I
" that I have found out that I am not fit for it, — that
I am a failure and a disgrace ; and you had no right
to expect me to be anything else."
15
"
you mean it. But if I was of any use to you I did n't
know it " —
" It was probably inspiration, then," he interrupted
coolly. "Come, this isn't a thing to be frightened
at. You're not obliged to do what I say. But I
"No, no!"
" I know that I am not very young and that I am
not very good-looking."
" It is n't that at all."
would do it ?
XL
can get out of it. You have spent years and years of
study, and a great deal of money, to educate yourself
you."
" I think he was secretly laughing at me, and that
he would expect to laugh me out of his promise."
" Well, then, you ought to take time to reflect, and
you ought to be sure that you 're right about him."
" Is that what you really think, mother ?
you have ever departed from it, it has not been with
my consent, nor for want of my warning. I have
did n't love him. If I had loved him that would have
''
No, I don't, doctor, I 'm sorry to say. If I did,
and let it lie in the open hands which she let lie in
her lap.
She was not impatient to have the time pass ; it
event ; but she liked this fond delay, and the soft
240 DE. BEEEN'S PRACTICE.
with the letter till he found the right one. She kept
walking on out into the forest through which the
road wound, and she had got a mile away before she
saw the weary bowing of the horses' heads as they
;
them horses o' mine, I sh'd 'a' run right over ye."
" I wished to speak with you," she began. " I
wished to send " —
She stopped, and the passenger leaned forward to
learn what was going on. " Miss Breen
!
" he ex-
claimed, and leaped out of the back of the barge and
ran to her.
" You — you got my letter
!
hand that she had kept in her pocket for that pur-
She did not heed this, but " You are going to be
to you."
" Did you hate me so badly as that ? Wliat had I
"
done to you ?
came into her eyes and ran down her face, which she
averted from him. When she could control herself
she said, "I have an opportunity of going on in my
profession now, in a way that makes me sure of
success."
"I am very glad on your account. You must be
glad to realize" —
" No, no
!
" she retorted wUdly. " I am riot glad!
" I thought you " —
" But there are conditions ! He says he will go
"Who?"
" Don't you know ? Dr. Mulbridge !
splendor.
" I could n't risk anything. I had spoken, once for
all I always thought that for a man to offer him-
self twice was indelicate and unfair. I could never
" That 's very sweet in you," she said ; and perhaps
she would have praised in the same terms the pre-
cisely opposite sentiment. " It 's some comfort," she
added, with a deep-fetched sigh, " to think I had to
speak."
love
!
" Oh, nothing is easy that men have to do " she
answered, with passionate earnestness.
There are moments of extreme concession, of mag-
nanimous admission, that come but once in a life-
time.
250 DB. bbeen's practice.
XII.
that, without pity. One man had made her feel very-
the sort of turnout you 've been used to, but I want
you to drive with me."
upon his lip. " You may depend upon its hurting,"
you to marry me. You 're the first woman, and you
shall be the last. You could n't suppose I was- going
to give you up for one no 1
marry you ?
"No."
" Then how can you expect me to marry you with-
out loving you ?
" You know that I had the highest respect for you
as a physician. I tell you that you were my ideal
"
" How do you know it ? Who told you ?
" told me, — by every look
You have and act of
you now."
" You are, — the baflled tyrant."
" But if I promised not to offend again, why should
"
you deny me your acquaintance ?
them on.
17
" ;
'em gets sick they won't have to go far for advice, and
they won't have any doctor's bills to pay. Still, I
should n't ha' picked out just that kind of a wife for
him."
" As I understand," the storekeeper began ; but here
he caught sight of Widow Seth Wray's boy, and
asked, " What 's wanted. Bub ? Corn-ball ? " and turn-
ing to take that sweetmeat from the shelf behind him
he added the rest in the mouth of the hollowly rever-
feet.
one. They got their own looks from the first. Well,"
he added, "I hope she 's a tough one. She 's got either
to bend or to break."
storekeeper thoughtfully.
" He 's been pooty p'tic'lar, or they have," said Cap'n
Jabez.
it 's been him. There ain't any doubt but what he 's
got his eye on the girl's prop'ty, she '11 have to come
along. He 'd begin by havin' his own way about her
answer ; he 'd hang on till she said Yes, if she did n't
say it first-off ; anji he 'd keep on as he 'd begun. I
"Have to?"
" Oh, you have such a weak will. " Or I always
for she was too happy to be vexed with any one just
then. " I 'm glad you 've come to think so well of
husbands' rights at last, Louise," she said.
suggested.
DR. BRBEN'S PRACTICE. 265
me, and I told him so, about the first words I could
speak. And we 're going to try the new departure
and judgment.
Mrs. Breen hesitated between the duty of accom-
panying the young couple on their European travels,
" In the good work you have taken up. Oh, noth-
!
" Oh !
" said Mrs. Libby coldly, " that was my hus-
band's idea."
!
" Your husband's " cried Miss Gleason, facing
about again, and trying to let a whole history of
suddenly relieved anxiety speak in her eyes.
burlesque devotion.
Mrs. Libby flushed tenderly. "I might have known
it wordd be you, Walter. Where did you spring
from ?