Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-09-09
CHAPTER |.
Doctor Helmar Visits the Birches.
MARK the perfect man. and behold

Doctor Helmar Visits the Birches.
MARX the perfect man. and behold
the upright. "-Psalm xxxvii.
TN Doctor Morrison's breaktast-room
the curtains were drawn back, and
the windows stood wide open, let
ting In a flood of warm June sunshine,
and filling the whole room with tho
fragrance of the soft June air. Even
into the streets of the city, restricted
and shut in, something OF the freshness
and beauty of the summer morning
had managed to make their way, and
to Franz Helmar, seated alone at the
breakfast table, listening to the chatter
of the sparrows and the cooling of the
pigeons on the roofs outside, there
came suddenly a sense of irritation at
the monotony of dfngy sidewalk and
dusty street, Of house after house of
brick varied only by house after house
of stone.
Irresistibly, there crept over him the
whimsical fancy that he would like to
see the whole vast city at one stroke
fade and vanish completely before his
eyes, and in it's place behold once more
hill and valley, river and plain; all the
wide and boundless freedom of the
country; the splendid, sunlit glory of
out-of-doors.
Suddenly, across the current of his
musing, there sounded once again the
sharp, insistent ringing of the tele-
phone, scattering all his day-dreams
into flight, and for the moment he
paused, his c~offee-cup suspended in
mid-air, the better to listen to the doc
&ors~ xyogDa IN tha hill .nnfQtda
"Yes, this is Doctor Morrison" he
heard in the doctors sharp. alert, yet
not unpleasant tones, his "profes-
sional' voice, and then, pitched in a
lower key, far more intimate n cor
dial. he heard at broken intervals. "Ah,
yes, good morning-Tm sorry to
hear that-no, I'm afraid l can't
myself; not this morning. any
wayne, but / can send my
colleague. Doctor Helmar-Oh, perfect
ly, no doubt of hat; this is the day or
Young men. you kncw-All right
Eight-ffteen. South-All right; good
by" and then the click of the receiver,
and the doctor himself reentered the
room.
Doctor Morrison was a slender, wiry,
middle-aged little man. with a quick,
nervous manner and a face pleas
antly keen and inquisitive, clean
shaven, save for a little sandy u
tache, and with hair-what was left or
tt--of the same color. Professionally,
he ranked among the first half-dozen
practitioners in the city. He was an
autocrat in demanding obedience from
his patients, and a very martinez In
insisting hat his rules should be
obeyed, while he himself, in private
life, with the most delightful incon-
sistency, contrived successfully to
break them all. Cocktails he abso-
lutely forbade-and drank them with
infinite relish. Tobacco he denounced
as one Of the curses of modern life-and
peacefully smoked cigarettes innumer-
able. Eight hours sleep he declared to
be o necessity-and himself sat up un~
til all hours of the night n morning.
In him you met a doctor stern and
observation-disclosures. e~ven-untn
you came to know him, and then, shorn
of his professional voice n man.
ner, you came suddenly o a man.
gentle-hearted, lunar and kind.
Seating himself. he glanced UP at
Helmar, talking jerkily over his eggs
and toast, in his absence now grown
discouraged looking and cold.
"A job for you. Franz" he said, Ed
ward C~arleton-the man who owns that
big place out at Eversley-Oaks?
Beeches? What is the name? Some
kind Of tree. Birches. That's II.
Birches. Funny name to give a place,
anyway. Well. the old mans laid up
with a cold. That was his brother
who telephoned. Henry Carleton, you
know, the bank man. He wanted me
to come out at once, and l told him l
couldn't, but that I'd send you instead.
Train leaves South Station at S:15. So
you've plenty of time. I'll look after
Colonel Wentworth myself, n drop
in to see Mrs. Brooks. Nothing else,
Is there?"