Dr. Breen's Practice

me good advice. She said that she had thought a great deal about it throughout her

id he couldn't cure me? No, indeed! He'd have let me die first, and I should n't have blamed him. Of course I know what pressure I brought to bear upon you, but you had no business to mind me. You oughtn't to have minded my talk any more than the buzzing of a mosquito, and no real doctor would. If he wants to be a success, he must be hard-hearted; as hard-hearted as"

ion with her husband. She rather flaunted the happiness of her reunion in the face of the public, and she vouchsafed an explanation to no one. There had never been anything definite in her charges against him, even to Grace, and her tacit withdrawal of them succeeded perfectly well. The ladies, after som

had no objection to Mr. Maynard. He, in fact, treated her with a filial respect which went far to efface her preconceptions; and he did what he could to retrieve himself from the

een out of health so long. That makes a grea

th his unbuoyant hopefulness, "and I reckon I've got to help i

w that every woman

islocated, and that's what really commenced the trouble. If it had n't been for Adam, there would n't have been any woman, you know; and you could n't blame her for what happened after she got going?" There was no gleam of insinuatio

asked

she liked him, and she was willing to accept for all reason the cause of unhappiness at which he further hinted. "You see, doctor, an incompatibility is a pretty hard thing to manage. You can't forgive it like a real grievance. You have to try other things, and find out that there are worse things, and then you come back to it and stand it. We're talking Wyoming and cattle range, now, and Mrs. Maynard is all for the new deal; it's going to make us healthy, wealthy, and wise. Well, I supp

be of great value. It wouldn't be at all

Why, doctor, it would be a good opening for you! It 's just the place for you. You 're off here in a corner, in New England, and you have n't got any sort of scope; but at Cheyenne you'd have the whole field to yourself; there is n't another lady doctor in Chey

intolerably pathetic. "Why, I'm told," he said, "that they have to blanket the apple-trees while the fruit is setting; and they kill off our Colorado bugs by turning them loose, one at a time, on the potato-patches: the bug starves to death in forty-eight hours. But you've got plenty of schoolhouses, doctor; it does beat all, about the schoolhouses. And it's an awful pity that there are no children to go to school in them. Why, of course the people go West as fast as they can, but they ought to be helped; the Government ought to do s

ation of New England was naturally unintelligible. She had not come to her final liking for him without a season of serious misgiving, but after that she rested in peace upon what every one knowing him felt to be his essential neighborliness. Her wonder h

for me. But nothing but the tallest mountains would do him; and one day when he was up there on the comb of the roof somewhere, tied with a rope round his waist to the guide and a Frenchman, the guide's foot slipped, and he commenced going down. The Frenchman was just going to cut the rope and let th

aid Gra

l. Hello! There's the doctor." He unlimbered his lank legs, and rose with an effect of opening his person like a pocket-knife. "As I understand it, this is an unprofessional visit, and the doctor is here among us as

see Mrs. Maynard. Grace remained in her place, and she was still sitting there when Dr. Mulbridge returned

se?" she asked, rising

She hesitated at this peculiar summons, but some pressure was upon her to obey Dr. Mulbridge, as there was upon most people whe

the sandy avenues toward the woods, in which it presently lost itself. "But there will be very little

ve got a future as much as you have a past, and there's th

with a little bitterness. "Tha

because I have been thinking very seriously about my own. I want to ask your advice and to give you mi

ot. There was that flattery in his question which the junior in any vocation feels in the appeal of his senior; and there was the flattery which any woman feels in a man's reco

ioner yourself for the last three weeks. Wha

andoned my princ

? What do you think of me

ire you. Why do

ught up in a city, and I have always lived here in the country, except the two years I was o

he answered. "My opinion wouldn

hey happened to feel more comfortable-have advised me to come to Boston." His derision seemed to throw contempt on all her sex; but he turned to her, and asked

anywhere. I judge your fitness by my own deficiency. The first time I saw you with Mrs. Maynard, I saw that you had ever

it up?" he demanded, with a trium

r me to be of no use in the world; and I hoped that I might do something in a way that seemed natural for women. And I don't give up

ceptional man, and I don't think you're an exceptional woman.

g is somewhere in me ind

you wish to spare your sex at your own expense? But that's the way with some ladies, I've noticed. They approve of what women attempt because women attempt it, and they believe the a

at amused him. "I wished to regard myself, in taking up this prof

you able

nally replied to thi

at her helpless candor. "And are you su

u mean," she said, v

lieve that you're a failure, or because you part

n any man I should not have failed. But every woman physician has a double disadvantage tha

ose fault

. Women can't move a step forwards without their sufferance and help. Dr. Mulbridge," she cried, "I wish to apologize for the hasty and silly words I used to you the day I came to ask you to consult with me. I ought to have been g

ouldn't it, to refuse a lady's request. You don't know how near I was to giving way. I can tell you, now that it's all over. I had never seen a lady of our profession before," he added hastily, "and my curiosity was up. I always had

lieve that,

patients are women. It's a

anything. I shal

shall yo

n't k

ures? I've heard about them,-in Rome and Florence and Paris. Are you going to throw away the study you've put into this profes

ot separate the mocking from the justice. "What do yo

never suc

first. But I have planned to unite wit

en tree. She obeyed mechanically, and he remained standing near her, with one foot lifted to the log; he leaned forward over her, and seemed to seize a physical advantage in the posture. "From your

should have no more right to give up," she answered, helples

chance. Are you satisfied that with my advice y

hink so.

o, too. Do

elf, and she sank back to her seat. "I offer you my

ice you must have had to overcome in regard to women physicians before you could bring yourself to do this; and I

it was ridiculous and disgusting to me till I saw you. I won't urge you from any personal motive to accept my offer. But I know that if y

eyes, with dismay in h

at do yo

our plan of life, and to save all you have done, and

ce, so strongly she felt the pressure of his will. "It can't be, Dr.

way, and blocked her advance, un

sted him as an anticipated symptom. "The whole idea is new and startling to

t think of it! I can't! I do d

without conscience or reason! I supposed the weakest woman would be equal t

ve found out that I am not fit for it,-that I am a failure and a

endurance and the discretion you have shown in the last three weeks. Withou

shame on them, they must bear it. I thank you for what you say. I be

ightened at. You're not obliged to do what I say. But I think you ought to hear me out. I have

eated. "There is

to be my wife: I believe that I can make you happy in the fulfilment of your plans;

ou, and that is

But between men and women it i

N

ulsive in

, n

ery young and that I am

't that

any woman before that I would have turned my hand to have. They always seemed to me fit to be the companions of fools, or the playthings of men. But of all the simpletons, the women who were trying to do something for woman, as they called it, trying to exemplify and illustrate a cause, were the silliest that I came across. I never happened to have met a woman doctor before you came to me; but I had imagined them, and I could n't believe in you when I saw you. You were not supersensitive, you were not presumptuous, and you gave up, not because you distrusted yourself, but because your patient distrusted you. That was right: I should have done the same thing myself. Under my direction, you have shown yourself faithful, docile, patient, intelligent beyond anything I have seen. I have watched you, and I know; and

flung about her, and then she looked imploringly up at him. "I h

away, and suffering her to rise. "Don't answer me now.

th from the sense of being on foot again. "I don'

in me? You don't th

right to doubt you. I know that I ou

physician." He smiled with entire serenity and self-possession. "Tell me one thing: was ther

e yourself. I sha

of your own conscience. You

! I won't have anything to do with it. I've been tort

nce. But I won't stay to worry you now. I'm coming again day

erry vines, with long strides, a shape of uncouth force. After he was out of