Part 8 (1/2)

”Oh, immensely; he is a particular friend of my husband's.”

This was so convincing, that off went another three-c.o.c.ked note, and next day a dark-green carriage and pair dashed up to Mrs. Dodd's door, and Dr. Short bent himself in an arc, got out, and slowly mounted the stairs. He was six feet two, wonderfully thin, livid, and gentleman-like. Fine homing head, keen eye, lantern jaws. At sight of him Mrs. Dodd rose and smiled. Julia started and sat trembling.

He stepped across the room inaudibly, and after the usual civilities, glanced a! the patient's tongue, and touched her wrist delicately.

”Pulse is rapid,” said he.

Mrs. Dodd detailed the symptoms. Dr. Short listened within the patient politeness of a gentleman, to whom all this was superfluous. He asked for a sheet of note-paper, and divided it so gently, he seemed to be persuading one thing to be two. He wrote a pair of prescriptions, and whilst thus employed looked up every now and then and conversed with the ladies.

”You have a slight subscapular affection, Miss Dodd: I mean, a little pain under the shoulder-blade.”

”No, sir,” said Julia quietly.

Dr. Short looked a little surprised; his female patients rarely contradicted him. Was it for them to disown things he was so a good as to a.s.sign them?

”Ah!” said he, ”you are not conscious of it: all the better; it must be slight; a mere uneasiness: no more.” He then numbered the prescriptions, 1, 2, and advised Mrs. Dodd to (1r01) No. I after the eighth day, and subst.i.tute No. 2, to be continued until convalescence. He put on his gloves to leave. Mrs. Dodd then, with some hesitation, asked him humbly whether she might ask him what the disorder was. ”Certainly, madam,”

said he graciously; ”your daughter is labouring under a slight torpidity of the liver. The first prescription is active, and is to clear the gland itself, and the biliary ducts, of the excretory acc.u.mulation; and the second is exhibited to promote a healthy normal habit in that important part of the vascular system.”

”What, then, it is not Hyperaemia?”

”Hyperaemia? There is no such disorder in the books.”

”You surprise me,” said Mrs. Dodd. ”Dr. Osmond certainly thought it was Hyperaemia.” And she consulted her little ivory tablets, whereon she had written the word.

But meantime, Dr. Short's mind, to judge by his countenance, was away roaming distant s.p.a.ce in search of Osmond.

”Osmond? Osmond? I do not know that name in medicine.”

”Oh, oh, oh!” cried Julia, ”and they both live in the same street!” Mrs.

Dodd held up her finger to this outspoken patient.

But a light seemed to break in on Dr. Short. ”Ah! you mean Mr. Osmond: a surgeon. A very respectable man, a most respectable man. I do not know a more estimable person--in his grade of the profession--than my good friend Mr. Osmond. And so he gives opinions in medical cases, does he?”

Dr. Short paused, apparently to realise this phenomenon in the world of Mind. He resumed in a different tone: ”You may have misunderstood him.

Hyperaemia exists, of course; since he says so. But Hyperaemia is not a complaint; it is a symptom. Of biliary derangement. My worthy friend looks at disorders from a mental point; very natural: his interest lies that way, perhaps you are aware: but profounder experience proves that mental sanity is merely one of the results of bodily health: and I am happy to a.s.sure you that, the biliary ca.n.a.l once cleared, and the secretions restored to the healthy habit by these prescriptions, the Hyperaemia, and other concomitants of hepatic derangement, will disperse, and leave our interesting patient in the enjoyment of her natural intelligence, her friends' affectionate admiration, and above all, of a sound const.i.tution. Ladies, I have the honour” and the Doctor eked out this sentence by rising.

”Oh, thank you, Dr. Short,” said Mrs. Dodd, rising within him; ”you inspire me with confidence and grat.i.tude.” As if under the influence of these feelings only, she took Dr. Short's palm and pressed it. Of the two hands, which met for a moment then, one was soft and melting, the other a bunch of bones; but both were very white, and so equally adroit, that a double fee pa.s.sed without the possibility of a bystander suspecting it.

For the benefit of all young virgins afflicted like Julia Dodd, here are the Doctor's prescriptions:--

FOR MISS DODD.

Rx Pil: Hydrarg: Chlor: Co: singuml: nocte sumend: Decoc: Aloes Co: 3j omni mane viii. Sept. J. S.

FOR MISS DODD.

Rx Conf: Sennae.

Pota.s.s: Bitartrat.