San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-20

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1.-THE disorder is a strange one; not S,
much, in itself, nor as outwardly mani
fested--in so far at least as the symp
toms have been laid open to my obser
walton. Looking daily at yon, my goot
sir. land watching the tokens of your as
pect now for months gone by, i shoult
deem you man sore sick it may be
yet not SO sick but that an instructed
and watchful physician might well hop,
to cure you. Butt know not what IL
say-the disease is what'I seem to know
yet know 1T not"
lyon speak in riddles, learned sir,
said the pale minister, glancing aside
out of the window.
"Then, to speak more plainly" con
tinued the physician, land crave par
don, sir-should it seem to require par
don--for this needful plainness of my
speech. Let me ask-as your friend-as
one having charge, under Providence, OF
your life and physical well being-hath
all the operation of this disorder been
fairly laid open and recounted to meS'
''How can you question it?" asked the
minister. Surely, it were child's play
to call in physician and then hide the
sorer
.'You would tell me then that / know
alp" said Roger Chillingworth deliber-
ately, and fixing an-eye, bright with in
tense and concentrated intelligence, on
the minister's face. BE it so! But
again! He to whom only the outward
and physical evil is laid open knoweth
oftentimes but half the evil which he is
called upon to cure. A bodily disease,
which we look upon as whole and entire
within itself, may after all be but a
symptom of some ailment in the spirit
ual part. Your pardon once again, good
sir, if my speech give the shadow of
offense. You, sir, of all men whom |
have known, are he whose body is the
closest conjoined and imbued and iden-
titled, SO to speak, with the spiritwhere-
of it is the instrument.
Then / need ask no further" said
the clergyman, somewhat hastily rising
from his chair. "You deal not, / take
it, in medicine for the soul?'
Thus, Sickness" continued Roger
Chillingworth, going on in an unaltered
tone without needing the interruption
but standing up and confronting the
and white checked minister
with his low, dark and misshapen figure
"a sickness, sore place, if we may so
call it, in your spirit, hath Immediately
its appropriate manifestation in Your
bodily frame. Would you therefore
that your physician heal the bodily evil?
How may this be unless you first lay
open to him the wound or trouble in
your soulY'
mo! not to thee! not to an earthly
cried Mr.. Dimmesdale pas
and turning his eyes, full and
bright and with a kind of fierceness, on
old Roger Chillingworth. Mot to thee!
But if it be the souls disease, then do
commit myself to the one Physician of
the soul! He, if it stand with his good
pleasure, can cure, or he can kill! Let
him do with me as in his justice and
wisdom he shall see good But who art
thou, that meddlest in this matter-that
1ares thrust himself between the sufferer
and his God?"
With a frantic gesture he rushed out
IF the room.
1T is as well to have made this STEP"
said Roger Chillingworth to himself,
looking after the minister with grave
smile. There is nothing lost. We
shall be friends again anon. But see,
now, how passion takes hold upon this
man and hurrieth him out of himself!
AS with one passion, so with another!
He hath done wild thing ere now, this
pious Master Dimmesdale, in the not
passion of his hearth
1t proved not difficult to re-establish
the intimacy of the two companions on
the same footing and in the same degree
as heretofore. The young clergyman,
after few hours of privacy, was sensi-
BILE that the disorder of his nerves had
hurried him into an unseemly outbreak
Of temper, which there had been moth
ing in the physicians words to excuse or
palliate. He marveled, indeed, at the
violence with which he had thrust back
the kind old man when merely proffer-
ing the advice which it was his duty to
to bestow and which the minister him
self had expressly sought. With these
remorseful feelings, he lost no time in
making the amplest. apologies, and be-
sought his friend to still continue the
care which, if not successful in restor-
ing him to health, had in all probability
been the means of prolonging his feeble
existence to that hour. Roger Chilling
worth readily assented, and went on
with his medical supervision of the min
lister, doing his best for him in all good
faith, but always quitting the patients
apartment at the close of professional
interview with a mysterious and puzzled
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