It was with a feeling of real pleasure that I saw him enter at last one
Saturday evening early in April. I had been feeling tired and depressed,
and only by an effort of will had I kept myself at my work. I was struck
at the change that a few weeks had wrought in the doctor's appearance.
His hair had grown unusually long, quite noticeably so, his tall figure
was somewhat bent, and there was an unusual appearance about his dress.
He had not yet cast aside the garb of civilisation, but his trousers
evinced a tendency to shrink, and he appeared to contemplate affecting
low necks in the matter of shirts. His feet were shod in sandals of a
peculiar make, and there was a feverish look in his eyes. As he came
towards me his characteristic kindly smile lit up his drawn features,
and he grasped my hand with friendly warmth. I was delighted to see him,
but somewhat shocked at the alteration in his looks. In answer to my
inquiries as to his prolonged absence, he explained that he had been
very busy for one thing, and that he had also been much preoccupied with
his own thoughts on questions of principle and propaganda.
"You know, Isabel," he said, "my habit of silence when confronted
by mental problems. I think I must belong to the race of ruminating
animals, and it is only by quietly chewing the cud of my ideas that
I can digest and assimilate them. It used to be just the same in my
student days, and doubtless the habit will stick to me through life.
When I have once thought out a point, and settled in my own mind on the
right course of action, I am not as a rule troubled by hesitation or
doubts, and then I like to talk and discuss, but the initial stage seems
to need solitude. Besides, I know you have been very much taken up of
late months. I have seen Kosinski sometimes, and had your news from him.
You are not looking well; you must have been overtaxing your strength,
and need a rest."
"Doctor, cure yourself, I might well say," I rejoined. "There is nothing
much amiss with me. I am a little fagged perhaps, nothing more. But you
look very much run down. I am sure you have been neglecting yourself
very much of late."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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