The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-05-21
THR LITTLE DARK DOCTOR.
BY MARY n. PRESCOTT.

- A4ANAA
ny MARY N. PRESCOTT.
From Harper's Bazaar.
The doctors all said that Ladislaw
must go to Europe to o his
hoalth, and Ladislaw said l must &C
Nth him; but it was necessary that
- should travel with physician, who
sould watch the variations OF his
pulse, and q friend introduced him to
tie slittle dark Doctor" as Ladislaw
described him to mt, who, having been
oyscworked himself, needed q vaca-
lion. On mypart, Ihad my chaperon.
10 be snre-a widow, not too old and
not too frivolous, who knew how to
IS blind at discretion, and who was
at the same time, SO dreadfully near
sighted that she could hardly distin-
Euish q Irritation from a quarrel, and
who, moreover, never made her ap-
pearance on deck after the first day
during the whole voyage. found the
Doctor agreat convenience, you may
be sure. Ladislaw said one would
suppose | was his patient; but Lads
law always ~exaggerates a little about
such things. Our passage was long
and rough, and Heaven only knows
what / should have done but for the
little dark Doctorl If ! wanted an ex-
ira wrap-and one always does on
shipboard-or q book, or my chair
moved, he was at hand. He read
to me on calm days, he sang to me
little Spanish and italian ballads
on moonlight nights; he beguil-
ed me with anecdotes of his
profession when we sat upon
deck in a heavy swell, with our chairs
lashed to the house, and the spray
driving owe us--that is, unless Mr..
Finch, the English gentleman who had
made our acquaintance through Lad
islaw, stole a march upon him, and
erected a canopy over my head with
his umbrella and macintosh, or gave
mo his arm for q promenade on the
tipsy deck. The doctor, however,
lAvished his attentions upon me with
N air which made one sensible that
no would do as much for any woman
kind who happened in his way; that
there was nothing personal or par
SECULAR in his devotion. Perhaps /
OWNED his feeling from the perfect
case with which he made himself at
home with me, as if I were merely a
c0mpanionable cousin or other lndif-
ferent feminine relative. Shall lever
forget that pitch-black night-"a very
Waipurgis night" the doctorh had SAID,
earlier-when the engine stopped sud
denly, like a tired-out heart, on the
Irish coast, and all the gentlemen
came tearing up from the ~card-room,
sndtheladies, in alldegrees oftoilettes,
from their state-rooms, forgetful OF
s8asickness or appearances; and I,
With sudden visions of shipwreck in
that plnnging sea, with the hustle OF
launching lifeboats, and the terror OF
being swung into one, and possibly
dropping between the two, rising be-
lore me like q spectral scene, tainted
outright upon the deck, and walked to
find myself in the Doctors arms in the
saloon?
You thought this was the end of the
world?" he said, smiling as only the
dark Doctor could smile.
81 fancy that / am dead-and damn.
edI" l answered laughing hysterically
He dropped me upon the sofa anc
turned away. "They stopped to take
sonndings,' he said. ut is nothing
You had better go to bed"
"Do you charge much for your ad.
vice?" / asked. Well goodnight.
hope we may not meet in the life
boat"
One day in London, as we were
walking through the dim old cloisters
at the Abbey, and trying to spell out
the names Of the dusty dead on the
worn pavement, having left Ladislaw
and Mrs. Adams still-mooning in the
Poets Corner, the Doctor said:
HYou were a little frightened that
night on the Irish coast. To tell the
truth, q small pipe iii the engine brokt>
but there was no real danger, | SUI
pect..
"And you we're not frightened at all,
knowing this?"
ZIP We would all go together, you
know. Your company would be as
board"
"Equivocal-but thank you. As for
me, l like to choose my company, not
have 1t thrust upon me-"
"Yesp" he said, indifferently
@Whose company would you select?"
wnyNlH co1ap% a =, n ,.f,c% ~. "a -,
sician. or perhaps u poet"
81 see. In heaven they need no doc.
tors"
Nor on earth either, generally
speaking" And her l impertinently
repeated to him the little German le.
gend Of the Doctor whom Death paid
q visit one day, and who, begging tc
defer the debt of Nature, offered to di.
vide all his future patients with the
King of Terrors; and so engrossed
were we with this pastime that We
barely escaped being locked into the
Abbey.
"You do not think well OF the pro
fession," he said.
"Oh, don't /? But, honestly, doyor
think yourself that the one who vol
unfairly elects to live in the constant
sight Of disease and suffering can have
sensitive OF aesthetic nature? And
love the aesthetic?
He did not answer, but looked al
the yellow horn ofthe newmoon, max
ing a rift in the fog, which the sunset
light family Hinged, while I looked al
him. There was certainly nothing
Bsthetic about the Doctor, if you ex.
cept his triste mustacha and his gener
al shapeliRess., / remember once, If
Holland, as we steamed in q little
racket to Zaandam, and counted the
windmills and the cottage roofs that
appeared to grow up behind the dikes
that he, happening to speak Of him.
n n ranarked that he hid been mis-