III
A CURIOUS CASE
"What is it, dear?"
"Bothered—bothered."
"A case?"
"Yes, and I must get it off my mind this evening."
The Doctor set down his after-dinner coffee untasted on the library table, and rose with a half sigh from his easy chair before the blazing wood-fire. His heavy eyebrows were drawn together into a straight line over the bridge of his nose, and that, his wife knew full well, was an ominous sign.
"Must you go to-night? It's such a fearful storm; just hear it!"
"Yes, I must; just to get it off my mind. I sha'n't be gone long, and I'll tell you all about it when I get home." The Doctor stooped and kissed the detaining hand that his wife had laid lovingly on his arm; then, turning to the telephone, he bespoke a cab.
As the vehicle made its way up Fifth Avenue in the teeth of a February, northeast gale that drove the sleet rattling against the windows, Doctor Heath settled back farther into his corner, growling to himself, "I wish some people would let me manage their affairs for them; it would show their common sense to let me show them some of mine."
A few blocks north of the park entrance, the cab turned east into a side street, and stopped at Number 4.
"Mr. Clyde in, Wilkins?" asked the Doctor of the colored butler, who opened the door.
"Yes, sah; jes' up from dinner, sah, to see Miss Hazel."
"Tell him I want to see him in the library."
"Yes, sah." He took the Doctor's cloak and hat, hesitating a moment before leaving, then turning, said: "Scuse me, sah, but Miss Hazel ain't more discomposed?"
"No, no, Wilkins; Miss Hazel is doing fairly well."
"Thank you, sah; " and Wilkins ducked his head and sprang upstairs.
"Why, Dick," said Mr. Clyde, as he entered the library hurriedly, "what's wrong?"
"The world in general, Johnny, and your world in particular, old fellow."
"Is Hazel worse?" The father's anxiety could be heard in the tone with which he put the question.
"I'm not satisfied, John, and I'm bothered."
When Doctor Heath called his friend "John," Mr. Clyde knew that the very soul of him was heavily burdened. The two had been chums at Yale: the one a rich man's son; the other a country doctor's one boy, to whom had been bequeathed only a name honored in every county of his native state, a good constitution, and an ambition to follow his father's profession. The boy had become one of the leading physicians of the great city in which he made his home; his friend one of the most sought-after men in the whirling gayeties of the great metropolis. As he stood on the hearth with his back to the mantel waiting for the physician's next word, he was typical of the best culture of the city, and the Doctor looked up into the fine face with a deep affection visible in his eyes.
"Going out, as usual, John?"
Only to the Pearsells' reception. Don't keep me waiting, old fellow; speak up."
"How the deuce am I to make things plain to you, John? Here, draw up your chair a little nearer mine, as you used in college when you knew I had a four a. m. lecture awaiting you, after one of your larks."
The two men helped themselves to cigars; and the Doctor, resting his head on the back of the chair, slowly let forth the smoke in curling rings, and watched them dissolve and disperse.
"Come, Dick, go ahead; I can stand it if you can."
"Well, then, I've done all I can for Hazel, and shall have to give up the case unless you do all you can for her."
Now the Doctor had not intended to make his statement in such a blunt fashion, and he could not blame Mr. Clyde for the touch of resentment that was so quick to show in his answer.
"I didn't suppose you went back on your patients in this way, Richard; much less on a friend. I have done everything I can for Hazel. If there is anything I've omitted, just tell me, and I'll try to make it good."
The Doctor nodded penitently. "I know, John, I've said it badly; and I don't know but that I shall make it worse by saying you've done too much."
"Too much! That is not possible. Didn't you order last year's trip to Florida and the summer yachting cruise?"
Doctor Heath groaned. "I'm getting in deeper and deeper, John; you can't understand, because you are you; born and bred as you are— Look here, John, did it ever occur to you that Hazel is a little hot-house plant that needs hardening?"
"No, Richard."
"Well, she is; she needs hardening to make her any kind of a woman physically and, and—" The Doctor stopped short. There were some things of which he rarely spoke.
"My Hazel needs hardening!" exclaimed the amazed father. "Why, Richard, haven't you impressed upon me again and again that she needs the greatest care?"
The Doctor groaned again and smote his friend solidly on the knee.
"Oh, you poor rich—you poor rich! 'Eyes have ye, and ye see not; ears have ye, and hear not.' John, the girl must go away from you, who over-indulge her, from this home-nest of luxury, from this private-school business and dancing-class dissipation, from her young-grown-up lunch-parties and matinee-parties, from her violin lessons and her indoor gymnastics—curse them!"
This was a great deal for the usually self-contained physician, and Mr. Clyde stared at him, but half comprehending.
"Go away? Do you mean, Richard, that she must leave me?"
"Yes, I mean just that."
"Well,"—it was a long-drawn, thinking "well,"—"I will ask my sister to take her this summer. She returns from Egypt soon and has just written me she intends to open her place, 'The Wyndes,' in June."
Again the Doctor groaned: "And kill her with golf and picnics and coaching among all those fashionable butterflies! Now, hear to me, John," he laid his hand on his friend's shoulder, "send her away into the country, that is country,—something, by the way, which you know precious little about. Let me find her a place up among those life-giving Green Hills, and do you do without her for one year. Let me prescribe for her there; and I'll guarantee she returns to you hale and hearty. Trust her to me, John; you'll thank me in the end. I can do no more for her here."
"Do you mean, Richard, to put her away into real country conditions?"
"Yes, just that; into a farmer's family, if possible,—and I know I can make it possible,—and let her be as one of them, work, play, go barefoot, eat, sleep, be merry—in fact, be what the Lord intended her to be; and you'll find out that is something very different from what she is, if only you'll hear to me."
The Doctor was pacing the room in his earnestness. He was not accustomed to beg thus to be allowed to prescribe for his patients. His one word was law, and he was not required to explain his motives.
Mr. Clyde's eyes followed him; then he broke the prolonged silence.
"Richard, you have asked me the one thing to which her mother would never have consented. How, then, can I?"
"Think it over, John, and let me know."
The two men clasped hands.
"Let me take you along in my cab to the reception; it's inhuman to take out your horses on such a night."
"Thank you, no; I think I'll give it up; I'm not in the mood for it. Good-night, old fellow."
"Good-night, Johnny."
The next morning, at breakfast, the Doctor took up a note that lay beside his plate, and after reading it beamed joyously while he stirred his coffee vigorously without drinking it. When, finally, he looked up, his wife elevated her eyebrows over the top of the coffee urn, and the Doctor laughed.
"To be sure, wifie, read the note." And this is what she read:—
Dear Richard,—I've had a hard night, trying to look at things from your point of view and see my own duty towards Hazel. Things have grown rather misty, looking both backwards and forwards, and I have concluded I can't do better than to take you at your word,—trust her to you, and accept the guarantee of her return to me with her physical condition such as it should be.
This decision will, as you well know, raise a storm of protest among the relations. The whole swarm will be about my ears in less than no time. Stand by me. The whole responsibility rests upon you,—and tell Hazel; I'm too much of a coward. This is a confession, but you will understand. Let me know the details of your plans so soon as possible. I have never been able to give you such a proof of friendship. Have you ever asked another man for such? I mistrust you, old fellow.Yours,