“Well, to tell the truth, Doctor, I am not as strong as I was a few years ago, but suppose it’s the natural result of advancing years.” “You’re not an old man yet, Mr. ——. You are only 55, I think you told me. You ought to be good for at least ten years yet, and perhaps longer.” “Do you really think so, Doctor. Is there any hope in that direction?” “Most certainly. There is little question about the result. Modern science has given us an entirely new method of treatment in cases of this kind the effects of which are little short of miraculous. The one trouble, however, is that it is expensive, so much so that I hesitate to speak of it as a rule.” No power on earth can prevent that man from having that treatment regardless of the expense. He has by this time an enlarged idea as to the doctor’s ability. He is pleased with the results of the treatment administered for the original ailment. He is impressed by the evident professional skill of the doctor in “discovering” a sexual condition which he fancied was known only to himself. He does not know that the physician has simply made a shrewd guess; one that he is in the habit of making several times a week, and generally with the same result. 156He is in the seventh heaven of delight. The doctor has adroitly dangled before his eyes a certainty which he had been vainly praying for. His next question is: “What will it cost?” Direct answer to this depends upon what the doctor has learned about the patient’s financial rating and willingness to pay. Few cases of this kind are taken under $1,000. Allowing that the physician has decided upon this amount as the extreme limit, he will reply: “It is hard to say exactly, Mr. ——. Somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500. It depends upon what I have to expend for the remedies and permission to use them. They come from abroad and can only be obtained with the consent of the scientist who introduced them. That kind of men, as you doubtless know, are not always easy to deal with.” “Well, the price is pretty steep, but if you are satisfied the treatment will do the work I want it.” “There’s no doubt about the merits of the treatment, Mr. ——. The only thing, as I said before, that holds me back from recommending it generally, is its high cost. Besides I don’t, as a usual thing, care to handle cases of that nature.” Smart doctor! He has got his human fly stuck on a gummed trap from which he couldn’t extricate himself if he would, and he doesn’t want to. If this wonderful treatment will restore his lost sexual power, and the doctor, in whom he has strong confidence, has told him it would, he’s going to have it. There is a little more conversation of an innocuous sort, and then the doctor says: