The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-04

talk about it, and went on ailing and pal
ing and laughing and working, using up the
vital cen ter, and at last broke down roundy with
what is now fashionable to diagnose as nervous
exhaustion. This in a family-and family of
men-where nobody but herself possessed
nerve that could be brought under the micro
scope was serious business l remember once
trying to explain to the baker why his daughter
could no longer oficate at the family wash-tub
by suggesting that he make rolls tomorrow
without baking powder.
s'Ye mean she's lost ner yeast2' asked the
father after some conscientious reflection.
McAll and had tried to do the best could
for her. | think l may say as much as that
Under consultation / had left the case for SIX
months largely to my junior / saw the girl
whenever necessary but | was driven. and she
seemed contented enough with him. They got
on very well together ID l kept, or thought
kept, her confidence. erhaps l hattered my
| self Just there with the subtle self-delusion
which doctor is apt 20 cherish about his estab-
lshed patients. We men of weaknesses Pc
| culiar to our prof; ION.
Miss Trust expected to marry person by
| the name Of ia Is Gumbrugen He ex-
| pressman. Il mother was professional nurse.
! had often employed her. they were very re-
| spectacle people. The engagement had lasted
! some years / believe she said she was waiting
| for Pirky to grow up. Pirky was the youngest,
the longest, the lankest, the noisest, the stupid
| est. the most spoiled and the least consider
ate of the tribe; but sometimes when / OBJ
| served Gumbrugen / was not in hurry for
|
| ter with the fellow that know of, except that
/ he was bald and had double chin. He
| highly respectable young man. He was peril
| naciously loyal to Sweet Home, and perfectly
willing to wait for Pirky to grow up. I suppose
| q man may be very much in love even if he has
a double chin The girl had never expressed
any dissatisfaction with her lover--and l
| repeat he was most estlmable young person.
! At the time of which speak Miss Trust had
improved little. McAll and I began to have
| hopes that she might not become chronic in
valid prospect of which we had never given
| any intimation to the patient; as / was after
ward glad TO remember. She expected may
say, she exacted-recovery with the radiant
| hopefulness OF her resolute nature; and bore her
! sufferings sweetly and trustfully as she
| bore with Pirky, waiting for health. she
| waited for the other tyrants to grow up" She
| was very lovable patient.
| Lloyd McAll was that most wretched Of be-
/, ings, a norbidly sensitive or sensitivey morbid
| man. In the medical school, where he was an
I excellent. though not brilliant scholar, he took
| life hard. He tainted in the dissecting- room
| four times; but pluckiy got up and at it again,
| till he conquered himself, and produced admra-
| bly, painstaking demonstrations He used to tell
| with feeling the story of BerlioZ, who would
have studied medicine but, at his first glance at
the material" turned and fled, dashng through
| the open window and home, to roll on the floor
| in agony for days; hence the world lost poor
| doctor and gained great musician.
| Throughout his course of study young McAll
worried. Ii he failed in a recitation forthwith
| he prepared to fail of his diploma If he
| did good thing; he was oppressed by his sense
| of its mediocrity. If a professor praised him,
| he carefully weighed the relative Importance of
| the professor.
The drudgery of mastering anatomy--one of
| the hardest of recitation room. studies in the
| educated word--disheartened HIM out of all
proportion. He crammed for his examinations
! at night on strong coffee, went to them tremb-
ling in every nerve and was i'll for days thereaf-
| ter. He was a faithful student, but he never
| knew Students comfort He saw life steadily.
| as well as whole, through magnifying glasses of
| conscientious encouragement / never thought
him quite well. His father had died Of excessive
smoking, and there was very nervous dia-
| thesis.
| With all this he was a fine and attractive fell.
| low, with decided power of his own kind, and a
| prospect of round if he had a fair
| amount of human happiness. He was one of
| those people on whom suffering acts like vitriol.
and whom gwen amount of it eats out. He
was conscientious, studious physician, and
| gaining good practice. l trusted him with my
| own work to any extent.
| With of this sort nothing is so sure as
| that woman will make mar him; and cheer
| full woman is foreordained influence of pow
| erful kind
| Il sometimes think" he said once, when he
was dining with me- that the best kind of a
| wife a man could have would be woman of a
| sunny disposition who was little shallow
The next day he came and told me he hoped
| l wouldn't mistake his meaning, and wished me
a
| markably high one.
| He was not in love, and his freedom from all
! emotional ENHANCEMENT gave him special value
| to my mind, in the business / turned over to
him. He worked as impersonally as mineral
| on slate, and where his duty was his head was
| TO Lloyd McAll and not to me land this was
| as it should be- or if it were not had only my
self to thank for it, to the devoted young assist
/ ant, and not to the busy family doctor, the
| mons had gone which brought sudden help to
| urgent need at the bedside of Sweet Home He
| was there before me; had been sent for Pirky
said, In the night, besides; and yesterday after
| noon-he made a long call Yesterday; and again
| Pirky thought, the day before.
| How it had all been, who knew who knows2
| They had been necessarily often uogether-she
| in her charm and helplessness, he in his sens-
tive youth. On the iron discreetness due to their
| sacred relations, would have staked my honor
| that he had never encroached by the breadth of
| gravers point. He was physician, and gentle
| man. She Was his patient. He was man of
unblemished integrity. And to distrust her
| would have been like distressing the mountain
snow No one did distrust. At the worst and
most, and when we knew all that was ever
| known, the breath of debut was never cast
| upon those two Their spotless memory be-
| came, in a solemn and awful sense, the guarded
| treasure of their friends.
| Would be have welded herr Would she have
broken her troth for hmq Did they lovel ST.
lentlyl Confessedlya Calmlya Madya Did
| they face their position, evade its facts2
| Curse their fate2 vow to conquer it, Did he
| plead, and she recedeg Did he hope and she
| despair9 Did she wear that beautiful, gossamer
| mask of deceit which women wear for their own
| strange natures sake, when love- the nature
| within the nature, bids them reveal loves daz-
zling facet Or did she wear that deeper sadder
more impenetrabe disguise to which woman
betakes her when she would protect from her
| self the man she loves2 Did she thus? Did he
500 Was it thisl Was it that2 God knows
and they. Let him who knoweth answer
| Pirky hurried On before me into the tidy home
| where he had been served like Sultan and be-
haved like an imp for eleven years and noisily
| kicked open the door with his cowhide boots
| 'Be quiet Pirky How many times have Dr.
| NcAli and told you that noise hurts your sister,
| and that you"
| paused. One look told me that she would
| suffer no more from Pirky's boots Pirky mipht