The Doctor drew back, deeply shocked. Her words, the deep earnestness
of her voice, and the hard, selfish look in her eyes, surprised and
hurt him. He was a sentimentalist and to him a woman's whole existence
should be in her love, and in the home her lover could provide for
her. Modern as he was in his practice of medicine, advanced as he was
in his psychological studies, at heart he was an old-fashioned man,
with all of the old-fashioned man's ideas of love and marriage. For a
moment he felt a feeling of repulsion, almost of horror, and he looked
coldly at this young girl, who seemed to be so greatly changed by a
few short weeks of luxury, but as he looked he thought of the day,
only so lately passed, when she had been brought to them, white and
lifeless, and as he saw her now, defiant, rebellious, in all the vigor
of her splendid health, he smiled at her tenderly. He knew, as few men
know, the changes that some great nervous shock so often makes in a
person's character, and he resolved to devote himself to this girl
until her nervous system fully recovered, to help her with gentle
kindness until her old tranquil serenity was fully restored. It came
into his mind that of all the many cases of hysteria which he had
successfully treated here was one that would challenge his greatest
skill, and he was glad of the fortune that had sent him to her, for
his experienced eyes saw that she was to need his help, and in the
confidence of a man to whom failure seldom came he felt secure in his
ability to restore her to her old gentle self. He sat down beside her
and talked quietly of her father and of the fame and fortune that was
so sure to be his, and as he talked he watched her and saw just a
young, happy, innocent girl, serene now, perfectly gentle, perfectly
calm, and they laughed and talked merrily together until her father
entered the room.
CHAPTER V
A LOVER'S QUARREL
Dr. Crossett looked at his friend anxiously and found, as he was
prepared to find, that the Doctor seemed nervous and depressed, but
when, after a few moments, Lola left them together, he was hardly
prepared for the look of shame and humiliation he saw on his face.
"You sent for me, Martin," he said, trying to show in his voice the
deep sympathy and friendship that he really felt.
"Paul," the Doctor answered, after a moment's hesitation, "the money I
borrowed from you is gone! Gone! and not for the purpose for which you
loaned it."
"I made no condition, Martin. The loan was my own suggestion. I am not
a poor man, and all that I have is at your service. It is not worth
the tragedy in your face. With the fame that your discovery will bring
to you, you can easily repay me. Come!" He put his arm affectionately
over Dr. Barnhelm's shoulder. "Let's say no more about it. Just tell
me of your work. It must be only a few days now before you demonstrate
before the Medical Society."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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