THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 GEOFFREY STRONG
 
 Handy Volume Editions 
 of Copyrighted Fiction 
 
 BY 
 
 LAURA E. 
 RICHARDS 
 
 & 
 
 jf. 
 
 MRS. TREE ...... $ .75 
 
 GEOFFREY STRONG , .75 
 
 FOR TOMMY .... i.oo 
 LOVE AND ROCKS . . i.oo 
 
 *J? 
 
 Tall idmos, Individual Cover 
 Designs. Illustrated. 
 
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 DANA ESTES & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 ESTES PRESS, BOSTON, MASS.
 
 He paddled on in silence.
 
 EOFFREY 
 STRONG 
 
 By 
 
 Laura E. Richards 
 
 Author of 
 
 " Captain January," Melody," " Marie," etc. 
 
 Boston 
 
 Dana Estes & Company 
 
 Publishers
 
 Copyright, 
 BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Colonial 
 
 Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 
 Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
 
 to 
 
 &fdjarti Sttlltfran, 
 
 KINDEST OF UNCLES, FRIENDS, AND CRITICS, 
 
 THIS STOBY IS AFFECTIONATELY 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 622183
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER EAGB 
 
 I. THE TEMPLE OP VESTA ... 11 
 
 II. THE YOUNG DOCTOK .... 23 
 
 III. GARDEN FANCIES .... 42 
 
 IV. MOSTLY PROFESSIONAL ... 57 
 V. LETTER - WRITING AND HYSTERICS . 75 
 
 VI. INFORMATION . . . 91 
 
 VII. FESTIVITY . ' . . . . 104 
 
 VIII. REVELATION 120 
 
 IX. SIDE LIGHTS 138 
 
 X. OVER THE WAY . . . .154 
 
 XI. BROKEN BONES . . . .168 
 
 XII. CONVALESCENCE 186 
 
 XIII. RECOVERY 205
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 He paddled on in silence . . . Frontispiece 
 
 The young doctor glancing around saw all these 
 
 things. ........ 37 
 
 He stood looking at her, his hand still on the ham 
 mock rope 82 
 
 " There he comes, full chisel ! " cried Ithuriel Butters 214
 
 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF VESTA 
 
 " THAT'S a pleasant looking house," said the 
 young doctor. " What's the matter with my 
 getting taken in there ? " 
 
 The old doctor checked his horse, and 
 looked at the house with a smile. 
 
 " Nothing in the world," he said, " ex 
 cept the small fact that they wouldn't take 
 you." 
 
 "Why not?" asked the young man, viva 
 ciously. " Too rich ? too proud ? too young ? 
 too old ? what's the matter with them ? " 
 11
 
 12 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 The old doctor laughed outright this time. 
 "You young firebrand!" he said. "Do you 
 think you are going to take this village by 
 storm? That house is the Temple of Vesta. 
 It is inhabited by the Vestal Virgins, who 
 tend the sacred fire, and do other things be 
 side. You might as well ask to be taken into 
 the meeting-house to board." 
 
 " This is more attractive than the meeting 
 house," said the young doctor. " This is one 
 of the most attractive houses I ever saw." 
 
 He looked at it earnestly, and as they drove 
 along the elm-shaded street, he turned in his 
 seat to look at it again. 
 
 It certainly was an attractive house. Its 
 front of bright clean red brick was perhaps 
 too near the street; but the garden, whose 
 tall lilac and syringa bushes waved over the 
 top of the high wall, must, he thought, run 
 back some way, and from the west windows 
 there must be a glorious sea-view.
 
 THE TEMPLE OF VESTA 13 
 
 The house looked both genteel and benevo 
 lent. The white stone steps and window-sills 
 and the white fan over the door gave a certain 
 effect of clean linen that was singularly pleas 
 ing. The young doctor, unlike Doctor John 
 son, had a passion for clean linen. The knocker, 
 too, was of the graceful long oval shape he 
 liked, and burnished to the last point of per 
 fection, and the shining windows were so placed 
 as to give an air of cheerful interrogation to 
 the whole. 
 
 " I like that house ! " said the young doctor 
 again. " Tell me about the people ! " 
 
 Again the old doctor laughed. " I tell you 
 they are the Vestal Virgins ! " he repeated. 
 "There are two of them, Miss Phoabe and 
 Miss Vesta Blyth. Miss Phoebe is as good 
 as gold, but something of a man-hater. She 
 doesn't think much of the sex in general, but 
 she is a good friend of mine, and she'll be 
 good to you for my sake. Miss Vesta " the
 
 14 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 young doctor, who was observant, noted a 
 slight change in his hearty voice "Vesta 
 Blyth is a saint." 
 
 " What kind of saint ? invalid ? bedridden ? 
 blind ? " 
 
 "No, no, no! saints don't all have to be 
 bedridden. Vesta is a you might call her 
 Saint Placidia. Her life has been shadowed. 
 She was once engaged to a very worthy 
 young man thirty years ago. The day be 
 fore the wedding he was drowned; sailboat 
 capsized in a squall, just in the bay here. 
 Since then she keeps a light burning in the 
 back hall, looking over the water. That's 
 why I call the house the Temple of Vesta." 
 
 "Day and night?" 
 
 " No, no ! lights it at sunset every evening 
 regularly. Sun dips, Vesta lights her lamp. 
 Pretty? I think so." 
 
 " Affecting, certainly ! " said the young doctor. 
 " And she has mourned her lover ever since ? "
 
 THE TEMPLE OF VESTA 15 
 
 The old doctor gave him a quaint look. 
 "People don't mourn thirty years," he said, 
 "unless their minds are diseased. Women 
 mourn longer than men, of course, but ten 
 years would be a long limit, even for a woman. 
 Memory, of course, may last as long as life 
 sacred and tender memory," his voice 
 dropped a little, and he passed his hand across 
 his forehead, " but not mourning. Vesta is 
 a little pensive, a little silent; more habit 
 than anything else now. A sweet woman; 
 the sweetest " 
 
 The old doctor seemed to forget his com 
 panion, and nicked the old brown horse pen 
 sively, as they jogged along, saying no more. 
 
 The young doctor waited a little before he 
 put his next question. 
 
 " The two ladies live alone always ? " 
 
 "Yes no!" said the old doctor, coming 
 out of his reverie. "There's Diploma Grotty, 
 help, tyrant, governor-in-chief of the kitchen.
 
 16 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 Now and then she thinks they'd better have 
 a visitor, and tells them so; but not very 
 often, it upsets her kitchen. But here we are 
 at the parsonage, and I'll take you in." 
 
 The young doctor made his visit at the 
 parsonage dutifully and carefully. He meant 
 to make a good impression wherever he went. 
 It was no such easy matter to take the place 
 of the old doctor, who, after a lifetime of 
 faithful and loving work, had been ordered 
 off for a year's rest and travel ; but the young 
 doctor had plenty of courage, and meant to 
 do his best. He answered evasively the in 
 quiry of the minister's wife as to where he 
 meant to board; and though he noted down 
 carefully the addresses she gave him of nice 
 motherly women who would keep his things 
 in order, and have an eye to him in case 
 he should be ailing, he did not intend to 
 trouble these good ladies if he could help 
 himself.
 
 THE TEMPLE OF VESTA 17 
 
 "I want to live in that brick house!" he 
 said to himself. " I'll have a try for it, any 
 how. The old ladies can't be insulted by my 
 telling them they have the best house in the 
 village." 
 
 After dinner he went for a walk, and 
 strolled along the pleasant shady street. 
 There were many good houses, for Elmerton 
 was an old village. Vessels had come into 
 her harbour in bygone days, and substantial 
 merchant captains had built the comfortable, 
 roomy mansions which stretched their ample 
 fronts under the drooping elms, while their 
 back windows looked out over the sea, 
 breaking at the very foot of their garden 
 walls. But there was no house that com 
 pared, in the young doctor's mind, with the 
 Temple of Vesta. He was walking slowly 
 past it, admiring the delicate tracery on the 
 white window-sills, when the door opened, 
 and a lady came out. The young doctor
 
 18 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 observed her as she came down the steps; it 
 was his habit to observe everything. The 
 lady was past sixty, tall and erect, and 
 walked stiffly. 
 
 " Bheumatic ! " said the young doctor, and 
 ran over in his mind certain remedies which 
 he had found effective in rheumatism. 
 
 She was dressed in sober gray silk, made 
 in the fashion of thirty years before, and 
 carried an ancient parasol with a deep silk 
 fringe. As she reached the sidewalk she 
 dropped her handkerchief. Standing still a 
 moment, she regarded it with grave dis 
 pleasure, then tried to take it up on the point 
 of her parasol. In an instant the young doc 
 tor had crossed the street, picked up the 
 handkerchief, and offered it to her with a 
 bow and a pleasant smile. 
 
 " I thank you, sir ! " said Miss Phoebe 
 Blyth. "You are extremely obliging." 
 
 " Don't mention it, please ! " said the young
 
 THE TEMPLE OF VESTA 19 
 
 doctor. "It was a pleasure. Have I the 
 honour of speaking to Miss Blyth ? I am 
 Doctor Strong. Doctor Stedman may have 
 spoken to you of me." 
 
 " He has indeed done so ! " said Miss 
 Phoebe; and she held out her silk -gloved 
 hand with dignified cordiality. " I am glad 
 to make your acquaintance, sir. I shall hope 
 to have the pleasure of welcoming you at my 
 house at an early date." 
 
 " Thank you ! I shall he most happy. 
 May I walk along with you,, as we seem to 
 be going the same way ? I have been admir 
 ing your house so very much, Miss Blyth. 
 It is the finest specimen of its kind I have 
 ever seen. How fine that tracery is over the 
 windows; and how seldom you see a fan so 
 graceful as that ! Should you object to my 
 making a sketch of it some day? I'm very 
 much interested in Colonial houses." 
 
 A faint red crept into Miss Phoebe's cheek
 
 20 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 it was one of her dreams to have an oil- 
 painting of her house. The young doctor 
 had found a joint in her harness. 
 
 " I should be indeed pleased " she began ; 
 and, being slightly fluttered, she dropped her 
 handkerchief again, and again the young doc 
 tor picked it up and handed it to her. 
 
 " I am distressed ! " said Miss Phoebe. " I 
 am somewhat hampered by rheumatism, 
 Doctor Strong. It is not uncommon in per 
 sons of middle age." 
 
 " No, indeed ! My mother I mean my 
 aunt younger sister of my mother's used 
 to suffer terribly with rheumatism. I was 
 fortunate enough to be able to relieve her a 
 good deal. If you would like to try the 
 prescription, Miss Blyth, it is entirely at 
 your service. Not professionally, please un 
 derstand, not professionally; a mere neigh 
 bourly attention. I hope we shall be 
 neighbours. Don't mention it, please don't,
 
 TEE TEMPLE OF VESTA 21 
 
 because I shall be so glad, you know. Be 
 sides you have a little look of my aunt ; 
 she has very regular features." 
 v Miss Phoebe thanked him with a rather 
 tremulous dignity ; he was a most courteous 
 and attractive young man, but so impetuous, 
 that she felt a disturbance of her cool blood. 
 It was singular, though, how little dear Doctor 
 Stedman had been able to do for her rheu 
 matism, for as many years as he had been 
 attending her. Perhaps newer methods it 
 must be confessed that Doctor Stedman was 
 growing old. 
 
 "Where do you intend to lodge, Doctor 
 Strong ? " she asked, by way of changing the 
 subject gracefully. 
 
 The young doctor did not know, was quite 
 at a loss. 
 
 "There is only one house that I want to 
 lodge in!" he said, and his bold face had 
 grown suddenly timid, like a schoolboy's.
 
 22 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 "That is, of course there are plenty of good 
 houses in the village, Miss Blyth, excellent 
 houses, and excellent people in them, I have 
 no doubt ; but well, there is only one 
 house for me. You know what house I 
 mean, Miss Blyth, because you know how 
 one can feel about a really fine house. The 
 moment I saw it I said, 'That is the house 
 for me ! ' But Doctor Stedman said there 
 was no possible chance of my getting taken 
 in there." 
 
 "I really do not know how Doctor Sted 
 man should speak with authority on the 
 subject!" said Miss Phoebe Blyth. 
 
 Young doctor ! young doctor ! is this the 
 way you are going to comport yourself in 
 the village of Elmerton? If so, there will 
 be flutterings indeed in the dove-cotes. Be 
 fore night the whole village knew that the 
 young doctor was going to board with the 
 Blyth girls'.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE YOUNG DOCTOE 
 
 "AND he certainly is a remarkable young 
 man ! " said Miss Phoebe Blyth. " Is he not, 
 Sister Vesta ? " 
 
 Miss Vesta came out of her reverie; not 
 with a start, she never started, but with 
 the quiet awakening, like that of a baby in 
 the morning, that was peculiar to her. 
 
 " Yes ! oh, yes ! " she said. " I consider him 
 so. I think his coming providential." 
 
 " How so ? " asked the visitor. There was 
 a slight acidity in her tone, for Mrs. Weight 
 was one of the motherly persons mentioned 
 by the minister's wife, and had looked forward 
 to caring for the young doctor herself. With 
 
 23
 
 24 GEOFFREY STEONG 
 
 her four children, all croupy, it would have 
 been convenient to have a physician in the 
 house, and as the wife of the senior deacon, 
 what could be more proper ? 
 
 "I must say he doesn't look remarkable," 
 she added; "but the light-complected seldom 
 do, to my mind." 
 
 " It is years," said Miss Vesta, " since Sister 
 Phoebe has suffered so little with her rheuma 
 tism. Doctor Strong understands her con 
 stitution as no one else ever has done, not 
 even dear Doctor Stedman. Sister Phosbe can 
 stoop down now like a girl ; can't you, Sister 
 Phosbe ? It is a long time since she has been 
 able to stoop down." 
 
 Miss Vesta's soft white face glowed with 
 pleasure; it was a gentle glow, like that at 
 the heart of certain white roses. 
 
 Mrs. Weight showed little enthusiasm. 
 
 " I never have rheumatism ! " she said, 
 briefly. "I've always wore gold beads. If
 
 THE YOUNG DOCTOR 25 
 
 you'd have tried gold beads, Phoebe, or a few 
 raisins in your pocket, it's my belief you'd 
 never have had all this trouble." 
 
 It was now Miss Phoebe's turn to colour, 
 but hers was the hard red of a winter pear. 
 
 " I am not superstitious, Anna Maria," she 
 said. "Doctor Strong considers gold beads 
 for rheumatism absurd, and I fully agree with 
 him. As for raisins in the pocket, that is 
 nonsense, of course." 
 
 "It's best to be sure of your facts before 
 reflecting upon other folks' statements ! " said 
 Mrs. Weight, with dignity. " I know whereof 
 I speak, Phoebe. Father Weight is ninety 
 years old this very month, and he has car 
 ried raisins for forty years, and never had a 
 twinge of rheumatism in all that time. The 
 same raisins, too ; they have hardened into 
 stone, as you may say, with what they have 
 absorbed. I don't need to see things clearer 
 than that."
 
 26 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " H'm ! " said Miss Phoebe, with the suspicion 
 of a sniff. " Did he ever have it before ? " 
 
 "I wasn't acquainted with him before," 
 said Mrs. Weight, stiffly. 
 
 There was a pause; then the visitor went 
 on, dropping her voice with a certain mystery. 
 "You may talk of superstition, Phoebe, but 
 I must say I'd sooner be what some folks 
 call superstitious than have no belief at 
 all. I don't wish to reflect upon any per 
 son, but I must say that, in my opinion, 
 Doctor Strong is little better than an infi 
 del. To see a perishing human creature set 
 himself up against the Ordering of Providence 
 is a thing I am sorry to meet with in this 
 parish." 
 
 "Has Doctor Strong set himself against 
 Providence?" asked Miss Phoebe, her back 
 very rigid, her knitting-needles pointed in 
 stern interrogation. 
 
 "You shall judge for yourselves, girls!"
 
 THE YOUNG DOCTOR 27 
 
 Mrs. Weight spoke with unction. " At the 
 same time, I wish it to be understood that 
 what I say is for this room only; I am not 
 one to spread abroad. Well! it has never 
 been doubted, to my knowledge, that the lower 
 animals are permitted to absorb diseases from 
 children, who have immortal souls to save. 
 Even Doctor Stedman, who is advanced enough 
 in all conscience, never denied that in m,y 
 hearing. Well! Mrs. Ezra Sloper I don't 
 know whether you are acquainted with her, 
 girls; I have my butter of her. She lives 
 out on the Saugo Eoad ; a most respectable 
 woman. She has a child with a hump back ; 
 fell when it was a baby, and never got over it. 
 I found she wasn't doing anything for the 
 child, nice little boy, four years old ; hump 
 growing right out of his shoulders. I said to 
 her, ' Susan,' I said, ' you want to get a little 
 dog, and let it sleep with that child, and 
 let the child play with it all he can, and get
 
 28 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 real attached to it. If anything will cure the 
 child, that will.' 
 
 " She said, < Mis' Weight,' she said, < I'll do 
 it!' and she did. She thanked me, too, as 
 grateful as ever I was thanked. Well, girls," 
 
 Mrs. Weight leaned forward, her hands on 
 her knees, and spoke slowly and impressively, 
 
 "as true as I sit here, in three months' 
 time that dog was humpbacked, and growing 
 more so every day." 
 
 She paused, drawing a long breath of tri 
 umph, and looked from one to the other of 
 her hearers. 
 
 "Well!" said Miss Phoabe, dryly. "Did 
 the child get well ? And where does Doctor 
 Strong's infidelity come in?" 
 
 " The child would have got well," said Mrs. 
 Weight, with tragic emphasis. "The child 
 might be well, or near it, this living day of 
 time, if the Ordering of Providence had not 
 been interfered with. The child had a spell
 
 THE YOUNG DOCTOR 29 
 
 of stomach trouble, and Doctor Strong was 
 sent for. He ordered the dog out of the 
 house ; said it had fleas, and sore eyes, and I 
 don't know what. Susan Sloper is a weak 
 woman, and she gave in, and that child goes 
 humpbacked to its grave. I hope Doctor 
 Strong is prepared to answer for it at the Last 
 Day." 
 
 Miss Phoebe laid down her knitting-needles ; 
 but before she could reply, Doctor Strong 
 himself came in, bringing the breeze with him. 
 
 " How do you do, Mrs. Weight ? " he said, 
 heartily. " How is Billy ? croupy again ? 
 Does he go out every day? Do" you keep 
 his window open at night, and give him a 
 cold bath every morning? Fresh air and 
 bathing are absolutely necessary, you know, 
 with that tendency. Have you taken off all 
 that load of flannel ? " 
 
 Mrs. Weight muttered something about 
 supper-time, and fled before the questioner.
 
 30 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 The young doctor turned to his hostess, with 
 the quick, merry smile he had. " I had to 
 send her away ! " he said. " You are flushed, 
 Miss Blyth, and Miss Vesta is tired. Yes, 
 you are, Miss Yesta ; what is the use of deny 
 ing it ? " 
 
 He placed a cushion behind Miss Yesta, 
 and she nestled against it with a little com 
 fortable sigh. She looked at the young doctor 
 kindly, and he returned the look with one of 
 frank affection. 
 
 "Your mother must have had a sight of 
 comfort with you," said Miss Yesta. "You 
 are a home boy, any one can see that." 
 
 "I know when I am well off!" said the 
 young doctor. 
 
 Geoffrey Strong certainly was well off. In 
 some singular way, which no one professed 
 wholly to understand, he had won the confi 
 dence of both the "Blyth girls," who were 
 usually considered the most exclusive and
 
 THE YOUNG DOCTOR 31 
 
 " stand-offish " people in Elmerton. He made 
 no secret of being in love with Miss Vesta. 
 He declared that no one could see her without 
 being in love with her. " Because you are so 
 lovely, you know!" he said to her half a 
 dozen times a day. The remark never failed 
 to call up a soft blush, and a gentle " Don't, 
 I pray you, my dear young friend ; you shock 
 me!" 
 
 " But I like to shock you," the young doctor 
 would reply. " You look prettiest when you 
 are shocked." And then Miss Vesta would 
 shake her pretty white curls (she was not 
 more than sixty, but her hair had been gray 
 since her youth), and say that if he went on 
 so she must really call Sister Phoebe; and 
 Master Geoffrey would go off laughing. 
 
 He did not make love to Miss Phoebe, but 
 was none the less intimate with her in frank 
 comradeship. Eheumatism was their first 
 bond. Doctor Strong meant to make rather
 
 32 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 a specialty of rheumatism and kindred com 
 plaints, and studied Miss Phoebe's case with 
 ardour. Every new symptom was received 
 with kindling eye and eager questionings. It 
 was worst in her back this morning ? So t 
 now how would she describe the pain ? Was 
 it acute, darting, piercing ? No ? Dull, then ! 
 Would she call it grinding, boring, pressing? 
 Ah ! that was most interesting. And for other 
 symptoms yes ! yes ! that naturally fol 
 lowed; he should have expected that. 
 
 " In fact, Miss Blyth, you really are a mag 
 nificent case ! " and the young doctor glowed 
 with enthusiasm. (This was when he first 
 came to live in the Temple of Vesta.) "I 
 mean to relieve your suffering ; I'll put every 
 inch there is of me into it. But, meantime, 
 there ought to be some consolation in the 
 knowledge that you are a most beautiful and 
 interesting case." 
 
 What woman, I will go farther, what
 
 THE YOUNG DOCTOR 33 
 
 human being could withstand this ? Miss 
 Phoebe was a firm woman, but she was clay 
 in the hands of the young doctor, the more 
 so that he certainly did help her rheumatism 
 wonderfully. 
 
 More than this, their views ran together in 
 other directions. Both disapproved of matri 
 mony, not in the abstract, but in the concrete 
 and personal view. They had long talks to 
 gether on the subject, after Miss Vesta had 
 gone to bed, sitting in the quaint parlour, 
 which both considered the pleasantest room 
 in the world. The young doctor, tongs in 
 hand (he was allowed to pick up the brands 
 and to poke the fire, a fire only less sacred 
 than that of Miss Vesta's lamp), would hold 
 forth at length, to the great edification of Miss 
 Phoebe, as she sat by her little work-table 
 knitting complacently. 
 
 "It's all right for most men," he would 
 say. "It steadies them, and does them good
 
 34 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 in a hundred ways. Oh, yes, I approve highly 
 of marriage, as I am sure you do, Miss Blyth ; 
 but not for a physician, at least a young 
 physician. A young physician must be able 
 to give his whole thought, his whole being, so 
 to speak, to his profession. There's too much 
 of it for him to divide himself up. Why, take 
 a single specialty ; take rheumatism. If I gave 
 my lifetime, or twenty lifetimes, to the study 
 of that one malady, I should not begin to 
 learn the A B C of it." 
 
 " One learns a good deal when one has it ! " 
 said poor Miss Phoebe. 
 
 " Yes, of course, and I am speaking the 
 simple truth when I say that I wish I could 
 have it for you, Miss Blyth. I should have 
 it would be most instructive, most illuminat* 
 ing. Some day we shall have all that regu 
 lated, and medical students will go through 
 courses of disease as well as of study. I look 
 forward to that, though it will hardly come
 
 THE YOUNG DOCTOR 35 
 
 in my time. Kheumatism and kindred diseases, 
 say two terms ; fever, two terms no, three, 
 for you would want to take in yellow and 
 typhus, as well as ordinary typhoid. Cholera 
 well, of course there would be difficulties, 
 but you see the principle. Well, but we were 
 talking about marriage. Now, you see, with 
 all these new worlds opening before him, the 
 physician cannot possibly be thinking of falling 
 in love " 
 
 Miss Phosbe blinked, and coloured slightly. 
 She sometimes wished Doctor Strong would 
 not use such forcible language. 
 
 " Of falling in love and marrying. In com 
 mon justice to his wife, he has no business to 
 marry her ; I mean, of course, the person who 
 might be his wife. Up all night, driving 
 about the country all day, no woman 
 ought to be asked to share such a life. In 
 fact, the one reason that might justify a physi 
 cian in marrying and I admit it might be a
 
 36 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 powerful one would be where it afforded 
 special facilities for the study of disease. An 
 obscure and complicated case of neurasthenia, 
 now, but these things are hardly practicable ; 
 besides, a man would have to be a Mormon. 
 No, no, let lawyers marry young ; business men, 
 parsons, especially parsons, because they need 
 filling out as a rule, but not doctors." 
 
 The young doctor paused, and gave his 
 whole vigorous mind to the fire for a moment. 
 It was in a precarious condition, and the 
 brands had to be built up in careful and pre 
 cise fashion, with red coals tucked in neatly 
 here and there. Then he took the bellows in 
 hand, and blew steadily and critically, with 
 keen eyes bent on the smouldering brands. 
 A few seconds of breathless waiting, and a 
 jet of yellow flame sprang up, faltered, died 
 out, sprang up again, and crept flickering in 
 and out among the brands powdered white 
 with ashes. Now it was a strong, leaping
 
 The youug doctor glancing around saw all these things.
 
 THE YOUNG DOCTOR 37 
 
 flame, and all the room shone out in its light ; 
 the ancient Turkey carpet, with its soft blend 
 ing of every colour into a harmonious no- 
 colour ; the quaint portraits, like court-cards 
 in tarnished gilt frames ; the teak- wood chairs 
 and sofas, with their delicate spindle-legs, and 
 backs inlaid with sandalwood; Miss Phoebe's 
 work-table, with its bag of faded crimson 
 damask, and Miss Phosbe herself, pleasant to 
 look upon in her dove-coloured cashmere 
 gown, with her kerchief of soft net. 
 
 The young doctor, glancing around, saw all 
 these things in the light of his newly-resus 
 citated fire ; and seeing, gave a little sigh of 
 comfort, and laying down the bellows, leaned 
 back in his chair again. 
 
 "You were going to say something, Miss 
 Blyth ? " he said, in his eager way. " Please 
 go on ! I had to save the fire, don't you 
 know ? it was on its last legs coals, I should 
 say. Please go on, won't you ? "
 
 38 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 Miss Phoebe coughed. She had been 
 brought up not to use the word " leg " freely ; 
 "limb" had been considered more elegant, 
 as well as but medical men, no doubt, took 
 a broader view of these matters. 
 
 "I was merely about to remark," she said, 
 with dignity, " that in many ways my views 
 on this subject coincide with yours, Doctor 
 Strong. I have the highest respect for a > 
 matrimony ; it is a holy estate, and the daugh 
 ter of my honoured parents could ill afford to 
 think lightly of it ; yet in a great many cases 
 I own it appears to me a sad waste of time 
 and energy. I have noted in my reading, both 
 secular and religious, that though the married 
 state is called holy, the term 'blessed' is re 
 served for a single life. Women of clinging 
 nature, or those with few interests, doubtless 
 do well to marry, a suitable partner being pro 
 vided ; but for a person with the full use of 
 her faculties, and with rational occupation
 
 THE YOUNG DOCTOR 39 
 
 more than sufficient to fill her time, I admit I 
 am unable 'to conceive the attraction of it. 
 I speak for myself ; my sister Vesta has other 
 views. My sister Vesta had a disappointment 
 in early life. From my point of view, she 
 would have been far better off without the 
 unfortunate attachment which though to a 
 very worthy person terminated so sadly. 
 But my sister is not of my opinion. She has 
 a clinging, affectionate nature, my sister 
 Vesta." 
 
 " She's an angel ! " said Doctor Strong. 
 
 "You are right, my friend, you are very 
 right ! " said Miss Phoabe ; and her cap strings 
 trembled with affection. " There is an angelic 
 quality, surely, in my sister Vesta. She might 
 have been happy I trust she would have 
 been if Providence had been pleased to call 
 her to the married estate. But for me, Doctor 
 Strong, no ! I have always said, and I shall 
 always say, while I have the use of my facul-
 
 40 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 ties no! I thank you for the honour you 
 do me ; I appreciate the sentiments to which 
 you have given utterance ; but I can never be 
 yours." 
 
 To any third party who had seen Miss 
 Phoebe, drawn up erect in her chair, uttering 
 these words with chiselled majesty, and Doc 
 tor Strong, bellows in hand, his bright eyes 
 fixed upon her, receiving them with kindling 
 attention, it might certainly have appeared as 
 if he had been making her an offer of marriage ; 
 but the thought would have been momentary, 
 for when the good lady ceased, .the young 
 doctor chimed in heartily : 
 
 " Quite right ! quite right, I'm sure, Miss 
 Blyth. He'd be absurd to think of such a 
 thing, you know; the idea of your wasting 
 your time! That's what I say to fellows; 
 'How can you waste your time, when you'll 
 be dead before you know it anyhow, and not 
 have had time to look about you, much less
 
 THE YOUNG DOCTOB 41 
 
 learn anything?' No, sir, I beg your par 
 don, ma'am ! A single life for me. My own 
 time, my own will, and my own way ! " 
 
 Miss Phoebe looked at him with very kind 
 eyes. 
 
 " Doctor Strong," she said, " I think it is 
 no light thing for me to say, holding the con 
 victions I do but I think you are worthy 
 of single blessedness ! "
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GARDEN FANCIES 
 
 Miss VESTA was trimming her lamp. That 
 meant, in this early summer season, that it 
 was after seven o'clock. The little lady stood 
 at the window in the upper hall. It was a 
 broad window, with a low round arch, looking 
 out on the garden and the sea beyond it. A 
 bracket was fastened to the sill, and on this 
 bracket stood the lamp that Miss Vesta was 
 trimming. (It was against all fitness, as 
 Miss Phosbe said, that a lamp should be 
 trimmed at this hour. Every other lamp in 
 the house was in perfect order by njne 
 o'clock in the morning; but it was Miss 
 Vesta's fancy to trim this lamp in th 
 
 42
 
 GAEDEN FANCIES 43 
 
 evening, and Miss Phoebe made a point of 
 indulging her sister's fancies when she con 
 scientiously could.) 
 
 It was a brass lamp of quaint pattern, and 
 the brass shone so that several Miss Vestas, 
 with faces curiously distorted, looked out at 
 the real one, as she daintily brushed off the 
 burnt wicking, and, after filling and lighting 
 the lamp, replaced the brilliantly polished 
 chimney. She watched the flame as it crept 
 along the wick ; then, when it burned steady 
 and clear, she folded her hands with a little 
 contented gesture, and looked out of the 
 window. 
 
 The sun had set. The sea on which Miss 
 Vesta looked was a water of gold, shimmering 
 here and there into opal ; only where it broke 
 on the shingle at the garden foot, the water 
 was its usual colour of a chrysoprase, with a 
 rim of ivory where it touched the shore. The 
 window was open, and a light breeze blew from
 
 44 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 the water ; blew across the garden, and brought 
 with it scents of lilac, syringa, and June roses. 
 It was a pleasant hour, and Miss Vesta was 
 well content. She liked even better the later 
 evening, when the glow would fade from the 
 west, and her lamp would shed its own path 
 of gold across the water ; but this was pleasant 
 enough. 
 
 "It is a very sightly evening!" said Miss 
 Vesta, in the soft half-voice in which she 
 often talked to herself. "Good Lord, I be 
 seech thee, protect all souls at sea this night ; 
 for Jesus Christ's sake ; amen ! " 
 
 This was the prayer that Miss Vesta had 
 offered every evening for thirty years. As 
 often as she repeated it, the sea before her 
 eyes changed, and she saw a stretch of black 
 tossing water, with foam-crests that the light 
 ning turned to pale fire; a sail drove across 
 her window, dipped, and disappeared. Miss 
 Vesta closed her eyes.
 
 GARDEN FANCIES 45 
 
 But as the old doctor said, people do not 
 mourn for thirty years ; when she opened her 
 eyes, they were grave, but serene. "It is a 
 very sightly evening ! " she repeated. She 
 leaned out of the window, and drew in long 
 breaths of sweetness. Presently the sweetness 
 was crossed by a whiff of a different fragrance, 
 pungent, aromatic, the fragrance of tobacco. 
 Doctor Strong was smoking his evening cigar 
 in the garden. He would not have thought of 
 smoking in the house, even if Miss Phoebe 
 would have allowed it ; he smoked as he rode 
 on his morning round, and he took his evening 
 cigar, as now, in the garden. Miss Vesta saw 
 him now, in the growing dusk, striding up 
 and down; not hastily, but with energy and 
 determination in every stride. Her eyes dwelt 
 upon him affectionately ; she had grown very 
 fond of him. It was delightful to her to 
 have this young, vigorous creature in the 
 house, fairly electric with life and joy and
 
 46 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 strength; she felt younger every time she 
 saw him. He was good to look at, too, 
 though no one would have called him a 
 beauty. Tall and well-made, his head prop 
 erly set on shoulders that were perhaps the 
 least bit too square; his fair hair cropped 
 close, in hope of destroying the curl that 
 would still creep into it in spite of him; his 
 hazel eyes as bright as eyes could be, his skin 
 healthy red and brown, yes, the young 
 doctor was good to look at. So Miss Vesta 
 thought. There was a little look, too it 
 could hardly be called a resemblance yet 
 he reminded her somehow Miss Vesta's face 
 changed from a white to a pink rose, and she 
 said, softly, " If I had had a son, he might have 
 looked like this. The Lord be with him and 
 give him grace ! " 
 
 As Miss Vesta watched him, Geoffrey Strong 
 stopped to examine something in one of the 
 borders; stooped, hands on knees, and scruti-
 
 GARDEN FANCIES 47 
 
 nised a certain plant ; then, glancing upward as 
 he straightened himself, saw Miss Vesta at the 
 window looking down at him. 
 
 "Hurrah!" he cried. "Come down, Miss 
 Vesta, won't you, please? you are the very 
 person I want. I want to show you some 
 thing." 
 
 " Surely ! " said Miss Vesta. " I will be 
 with you in a moment, Doctor Strong; only 
 let me get a head-covering from my room." 
 
 When she had left the window, Geoffrey 
 was almost sorry he had called her ; she made 
 such a pretty picture standing there, framed 
 in the broad window, the evening light falling 
 softly on her soft face and silver hair. It was 
 so nice of her to wear white in the evening ! 
 Why didn't old ladies always wear white ? 
 when they were pretty, he added, reflecting 
 that Miss Phoebe in white would be an 
 alarming vision. His mind still on Miss 
 Vesta, he quoted half aloud:
 
 48 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " A still, sweet, placid, moonlight face, 
 
 And slightly nonchalant, 
 Which seems to hold a middle place 
 Between one's love and aunt." 
 
 " I wish you were my aunt ! " he ex 
 claimed, abruptly, when Miss Vesta ap 
 peared a few minutes later, with a screen 
 of delicate white wool over her head and 
 shoulders. 
 
 " Is that what you wished to say to me ? " 
 asked Miss Vesta, somewhat bewildered. 
 
 " No ! oh, no ! I was only thinking what 
 a perfect aunt you would make. No, I wanted 
 to show you something ; a line out of Brown 
 ing, illustrated in life; one of my favourite 
 lines. See here, Miss Vesta ! " 
 
 Miss Vesta looked. 
 
 " I see nothing," she began. " Oh, yes, a 
 miller ! Is that it, Doctor Strong ? Quite a 
 curious miller. The study of insect life is no 
 doubt "
 
 GARDEN FANCIES 49 
 
 " A moth ! don't you see ? " cried the 
 young doctor. " On the phlox, the white 
 phlox. 
 
 " < And here she paused in her gracious talk 
 To point me a moth on the milk-white phlox.' 
 
 "Don't you remember, in the 'Garden 
 Fancies ? ' " 
 
 But Miss Vesta did not remember. 
 
 Didn't she know Browning ? 
 
 She confessed that she did not. She had 
 fancied that he was not quite she hardly 
 thought that ladies did read his works to 
 any extent. " Cowper was my favourite poet 
 in my youth," she said, " and I was very fond 
 of Mrs. Hemans and Mrs. Barbauld. Their 
 poetry is at once elegant and elevated in tone 
 and spirit. I hope you agree with me, Doctor 
 Strong ? " 
 
 "I don't know!" said Geoffrey, "I never 
 read 'em. But Shelley, Miss Vesta ! you love
 
 50 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 Shelley, I'm sure ? He would have loved you 
 so, you know." 
 
 Miss Vesta's quiet face showed a little 
 trouble. "Mr. Shelley's poetry," she said, 
 hesitatingly, "is very beautiful. He was 
 some one I once knew was devoted to Mr. 
 Shelley's poetry. He used to read it to me. 
 But Sister Phoebe thought Mr. Shelley's re 
 ligious views were a not what one would 
 wish, and she objected to my following the 
 study." 
 
 " He wrote about moths, too," said Geoffrey, 
 abstractedly. "The desire of the moth for 
 the star, you know. Those things make you 
 feel queer when they come to you out here, 
 with all these lights and dusks and smells. 
 Now I wonder why!" 
 
 Miss Vesta looked at him kindly. "Per 
 haps there is some tender association," she 
 said gently, " such as is natural at your age, 
 my dear young friend."
 
 " Not an association ! " said Geoffrey, stoutly. 
 "Never had one in my life. It's only in a 
 general way. These things stir one up, some 
 how ; it's a form of mental intoxication. Do 
 you think a man could get drunk on sunset 
 and phlox, Miss Vesta ? " 
 
 " Oh, I trust not, I trust not ! " said Miss 
 Vesta, hurriedly, and she made haste to change 
 the subject. She as well as her sister found 
 the young doctor's expressions overstrong at 
 times, yet she loved the lad. 
 
 " The roses are at their sweetest now," she 
 said, leading the conversation gently away 
 from the too passionate white phlox, on which 
 the moth was still waving its wings drowsily. 
 "This black damask is considered very fine, 
 but I love the old-fashioned June roses best." 
 
 "'She loves you, noble roses, I know!" 1 
 said Geoffrey, who certainly was not himself 
 to-night. This one is exactly like you, Miss 
 Vesta. Look at it; just the colour of ivory
 
 52 GEOFFREY STEONG 
 
 with a little sunset mixed in. Now you know 
 what you look like." 
 
 " Oh, hush, my dear young friend ! " said 
 Miss Vesta. "You must not really, you 
 know talk in this way. But it is curious 
 that you should have noticed that particular 
 rose ; it it is the kind I used to wear when 
 I was young." 
 
 She looked up at the lamp in the window. 
 Geoffrey's eyes followed hers. Involuntarily 
 he laid his hand on hers. " Dear Miss Vesta ! " 
 he said, and his strong, hearty voice could be 
 very gentle. " Miss Blyth told me. Does it 
 still hurt, dear lady ? " 
 
 Miss Vesta's breath fluttered for a moment, 
 but it was only a moment. Her soft white 
 fingers, cool as rose-leaves, returned the pres 
 sure of his affectionately. " No, my my 
 dear," she said. "It does not hurt now. 
 There is no pain now, only memory ; blessed, 
 blessed memory. He there is something
 
 GAEDEN FANCIES 53 
 
 you remind me of him a little, Doctor 
 Geoffrey." 
 
 They stood silent, the young man and the 
 old woman, hand in hand in the soft evening. 1 
 The splendour in the west died out, and soft 
 clouds of gray and purple brooded like wings 
 over the sea. The water deepened from gold 
 to glimmering gray, from gray to deep brown 
 and blue. In one spot a faint glimmer trembled 
 on the waves ; the light from Miss Vesta's lamp. 
 The little lady gazed at it long, then looked up 
 into the strong young face above her. 
 
 "He was your age!" she said, hurrying 
 the words out in a low murmur, hardly louder 
 than the night breeze in the tall lilac-trees. 
 " He was bright and strong and gay like you ; 
 his sun went down while it was yet day. 
 The Lord took him into his holy keeping. 
 I wish I wish you all the joy I should 
 have tried to give him, Doctor Geoffrey. 
 I wish your life fortunate and brave, and
 
 54 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 your love happy; more than all, your love 
 happy." 
 
 She pressed his hand, and went quietly 
 away ; came back for a moment to pat his arm 
 and say she trusted she had not distressed 
 him, and beg him not to stay out too long in 
 the night air ; then went into the house, clos 
 ing the door softly after her. 
 
 Left alone, Geoffrey Strong fell to his pacing 
 again, up and down the neat gravel paths with 
 their tall box hedges. His face was very 
 tender ; looking at it, one might know he had 
 been a loving son to his mother. But pres 
 ently he frowned over his cigar, and then 
 laughed, and went and shook the unoffending 
 moth (it was a rare one, if he had been think 
 ing of that kind of thing) off the phlox. 
 
 " All the more reason, Stupid ! " he said to 
 the moth, as it flew away. " A man goes and 
 gets a girl to care for him, and then he goes 
 and plays some fool trick like as not this
 
 GARDEN FANCIES 55 
 
 chap had his sheet tied and leaves her alone 
 the rest of her life. Just look at this sweet 
 old angel, will you ? it's a shame. No, sir, no 
 woman in mine, thank you ! " 
 
 He paced again. The moth fluttered off in 
 the gloom; fluttered back, hovered, then set 
 tled once more on the milk-white phlox, which 
 glimmered like a a fragrant ghost in the half- 
 light. The perfume rose from the flowers and 
 mingled with the delicate scent of the roses 
 and the heavier breath of lilac and syringa. 
 
 " ' Where I find her not, beauties vanish ; 
 Whither I follow her, beauties flee. 
 Is there no method to tell her in Spanish ' 
 
 " Oh, I must be drunk ! " said Doctor Geof 
 frey. He tried another path. A new fra 
 grance met him, the keen, clean, cruelly sweet 
 smell of honeysuckle. Browning was gone 
 with the phlox and the roses; and what 
 was this coming unbidden into his head,
 
 56 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 crisp and clean and possessing, like the 
 honeysuckle ? 
 
 " ' Where'er she be, 
 
 That not impossible She 
 
 Who shall command my life and me ' 
 
 " I am drunk ! " said Geoffrey Strong. And 
 he threw away his cigar and went to bed.
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 MOSTLY PROFESSIONAL 
 
 " I FEAR Doctor Strong will be very much 
 put out ! " said Miss Phoebe Blyth. 
 
 Miss Vesta sighed, and stirred her coffee 
 delicately. " It is unfortunate ! " she said. 
 
 " Unfortunate ! my dearest Vesta, it is ca 
 lamitous. Just when he is comfortably settled 
 in surroundings which he feels to be con 
 genial" Miss Phoebe bridled, and glanced 
 round the pleasant dining-room "to have 
 these surroundings invaded by what he dis 
 likes most in the world, a girl, and a sick girl 
 at that ; I tell you it would not surprise me if 
 he should give notice at once." 
 
 This was not quite true, for Miss Phoebe 
 
 6T
 
 58 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 would have been greatly surprised at Doctor 
 Strong's doing anything of the kind ; but she 
 enjoyed saying it, and felt rather better after it. 
 
 "We could not possibly refuse, though, 
 Sister Phosbe," said Miss Vesta, mildly. 
 "Little Vesta being my name-child, and 
 Brother Nathaniel without faculty, as one 
 may say, and it is certainly no place for 
 her at home." 
 
 " My dearest Vesta, I have not been entirely 
 deprived of my senses ! " Miss Phoebe spoke 
 with some asperity. "Of course we cannot 
 refuse, and of course we must do our utmost 
 for our brother's motherless child; but none 
 the less, it is calamitous, I repeat ; and I am 
 positive that Doctor Strong will be greatly 
 annoyed." 
 
 At this moment Geoffrey came in, full of 
 apologies for his ten minutes' tardiness. The 
 apologies were graciously received. The Miss 
 Blyths would never have thought of such a
 
 MOSTLY PEOFESSIONAL 59 
 
 thing as being late to breakfast themselves, 
 but they were not ill-pleased to have their 
 lodger, occasionally not too often sleep 
 beyond the usual hour. It showed that he 
 felt at home, Miss Phoebe said, and Miss 
 Vesta, the mother-instinct brooding over the 
 lad she loved, thought he needed all the sleep 
 he could get, and more. 
 
 " It's really disgraceful ! " said the young 
 doctor for the third time, as he drew his chair 
 up to the table. "Yes, please, three lumps. 
 There never was such coffee in the world, Miss 
 Blyth. I believe the Sultan sends it to you 
 from his own private coffee-garden. Creamed 
 chicken ? won't I ? and muffins, and marma 
 lade, what a blessing to be naturally greedy ! 
 More pain this morning, Miss Blyth ? I hope 
 not." His quick eye had seen the cloud on 
 his hostess's brow, and he was all attention 
 and sympathy over his coffee-cup. 
 
 "I thank you, Doctor Strong; I feel little
 
 60 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 pain this morning ; in fact, I may almost say 
 none. But I we have been somewhat dis 
 turbed by the contents of a letter we have 
 received." 
 
 " Bad news ? " cried Geoffrey. " I'm so 
 sorry ! Is there anything I can do, Miss 
 Blyth ? You will command me, of course ; 
 send telegrams, or " 
 
 "I thank you! You are always most 
 kind and considerate, Doctor Strong. The 
 fact is " Miss Phoebe hesitated, casting 
 about in her mind for the best way of break 
 ing the news, -"the fact is, my brother is 
 a widower." 
 
 "Very sad, I'm sure!" murmured Geoffrey 
 Strong. " Was it sudden ? these shocks are 
 terribly trying. How did she " 
 
 " Oh no ! you misapprehend me, Doctor 
 Strong. Not sudden, nor nor what you 
 would call recent. It is some years since 
 Nathaniel's wife died."
 
 MOSTLY PBOFESSIONAL 61 
 
 " Old gentleman going to pass away him 
 self ? " said Geoffrey, but not aloud ; he was 
 aware of his tendency to headlong plunges ; it 
 was manifestly better to wait further explana 
 tions and not commit himself. 
 
 " My brother has an only daughter," Miss 
 Phoebe went on, "a girl of twenty. She has 
 been at college (I strongly disapproved of her 
 going, but the child is headstrong), and has 
 worked beyond her strength. She that is, 
 her father, is anxious for her to come and pass 
 a month or two with us; he thinks the sea 
 air will benefit her." 
 
 "No doubt it will!" said Geoffrey, still 
 awaiting the catastrophe. It was a great 
 bore, of course, in fact a nuisance, but it 
 couldn't be helped. 
 
 " This this is what has troubled us, Doc 
 tor Strong. We fear, my sister and I, that the 
 presence of a young person of the other sex 
 will be disturbing to you."
 
 62 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 Miss Vesta looked up quickly, but said 
 nothing. Geoffrey looked bewildered for a 
 moment, then laughed aloud, colouring like 
 a schoolboy. "Why, Miss Blyth, what must 
 you think of me ? " he said. " I am not par 
 ticularly given to to the society of young 
 ladies, but I am not such a misogynist as all 
 that." 
 
 Miss Phoebe did not know what a misogynist 
 was, and did not like to ask; there were so 
 many dangerous and levelling doctrines about, 
 as her father always said. Whatever it was, 
 she was heartily glad that Doctor Strong did 
 not believe in it. 
 
 " Vesta' is a good child," said Miss Vesta. 
 " She makes no noise or trouble in the house, 
 even when she is well. We shall of course 
 see that your convenience is not interfered 
 with in any way, Doctor Strong." 
 
 "If you talk like that, I shall pack my 
 trunk and go to-morrow," said Geoffrey, de-
 
 MOSTLY PROFESSIONAL 63 
 
 cidedly ; " and I don't want to go a bit. It's 
 I who am likely to be in the way, so far as I 
 can see; but you won't send me off just yet, 
 will you ? " 
 
 When Geoffrey Strong smiled, people were 
 apt to do what he wished, unless they were 
 ill-conditioned people indeed, and Miss Phoebe 
 and Miss Vesta were far from ill-conditioned. 
 
 "I've never been so happy anywhere," the 
 young man went on in his eager way, " since 
 
 since my own home was broken up. I'd 
 stay if you would let me, if there were twenty 
 
 I I mean, of course it will be delightful 
 to may I have another muffin, please ? 
 Thanks ! " Geoffrey had broken short off, be 
 ing a person of absolute honesty. 
 
 "I trust your niece is not seriously out of 
 health," he said, in conclusion, with his most 
 professional air. " Is any malady indicated, or 
 merely overf atigue ? " 
 
 Miss Phoebe put on her spectacles and took
 
 64 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 up the letter. "There is a word," she said, 
 c that I did not understand, I must confess. 
 If you will allow me, Doctor Strong, I will 
 read you a portion of my brother's remarks. 
 A yes ! ' Vesta seems very far from well. 
 She cries, and will not eat, and she looks like 
 a ghost. The doctor calls it neurasthenia.' " 
 
 Doctor Strong uttered an exclamation. Miss 
 Phoebe looked up in dismay. 
 
 "It is nothing contagious, I trust, Doctor 
 Strong ? " 
 
 "No! no! nothing of the kind. Go on, 
 please! any more symptoms?" 
 
 " I think not. She has no appetite, he says, 
 and does not sleep well. He says nothing of 
 any rash." Miss Phoebe looked anxiously at 
 the young doctor. To her amazement, he was 
 leaning forward, muffin in hand, his face wear 
 ing its brightest and most eager look. 
 
 " Is that all ? " he said. " Well of course 
 that's not professional. Very likely the phy-
 
 MOSTLY PROFESSIONAL 65 
 
 sician there will send a written diagnosis if 
 you ask him. You see, Miss Blyth, this is 
 very interesting to me. I want to make a 
 study of nerves, that's all the word means, 
 disordered nerves, and it will be the greatest 
 pleasure to me to try to he of service to your 
 niece ; if you should wish it, that is." 
 
 " Oh, Doctor Strong 1 you are too kind 1 " 
 said both ladies in duet. 
 
 They were so relieved, they overflowed in 
 little grateful courtesies. He must have more 
 cream; he was eating nothing. They feared 
 his egg was not quite was he positively 
 sure ? it would sometimes happen, with the 
 greatest care, that eggs were not quite a 
 little scrap more bacon, then! or would he 
 fancy some fresh cream cheese? and so on 
 and so on, till the young doctor cried out, 
 and said that if he ate any more he should 
 not be able to mount his bicycle, far less 
 ride it.
 
 66 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " By the way," he added, " I didn't see you 
 when I came in last night. I hope I didn't 
 disturb either of you. No ? That's right ; if 
 I ever make a noise coming in late, shoot me 
 at sight, please. You took the powder, Miss 
 Blyth? and slept well? Hurrah! Well, I 
 was going to say, I had a rather amusing time 
 at Shellback." 
 
 Shellback was a village some ten miles off, 
 whither he had been summoned the evening 
 before. Both ladies brightened up. They 
 delighted to hear of the young doctor's expe 
 riences. 
 
 "I don't suppose you know," Doctor 
 Strong went on, " no, you wouldn't be 
 likely to, an old man named Butters, 
 Ithuriel Butters ? Quaint name ! suggests 
 'Paradise Lost' and buns. Old Man Butters 
 they call him. Well, I went to see him; 
 and I got a lesson in therapeutics, and two 
 recipes for curing rheumatism, beside. I
 
 MOSTLY PROFESSIONAL 67 
 
 think I must try one of them on you, Miss 
 Blyth." 
 
 Miss Phoebe, who was literal, was about to 
 assure him that she was amply satisfied with 
 the remedies already in use ; but he went on, 
 in high enjoyment, evidently seeing almost 
 with his bodily vision the figures he conjured 
 up. 
 
 " It seems the old gentleman didn't want me 
 sent for; in fact, the family had done it on 
 the sly, being alarmed at certain symptoms 
 new to them. I got out there, and found the 
 old fellow sitting in his armchair, smoking his 
 pipe; fine-looking old boy, white hair and 
 beard, and all that. Looked me all over, and 
 asked me what I wanted. Wife and daughter 
 kept out of the way, evidently scared at what 
 they had done. I went in alone. I said I had 
 come to see him. 
 
 "'All right,' says he. 'No extra charge!' 
 and he shut his eyes, and smoked away for
 
 68 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 dear life. Presently he opened his eyes, and 
 looked at me again. 
 
 " ' Like my looks ? ' he says. 
 
 "'Yes,' said I. I thought he might have 
 returned the compliment, but he didn't; he 
 only grunted. I waited a hit, talked of this 
 and that ; at last I said, How are you feeling 
 this evening, Mr. Butters ? ' 
 
 " ' First-rate ! ' said he. ' How be you ? ' 
 
 " ' I'm all right,' said I, ' but I don't believe 
 you are, sir. You are not the right colour at all.' 
 
 " ' What colour be I ? not green, I calc'late ! ' 
 Then we both laughed, and felt better. I asked 
 if I might smoke, too, and took out my pipe. 
 Pretty soon the old fellow began to talk. 
 
 " ' My women-folks sent for you, did they ? 
 I suspicioned they had. Fact, I was slim this 
 mornin' ; took slim suddin, whilest I was 
 milkin'. Didn't relish my victuals, and that 
 scairt the woman. But I took my physic, and, 
 come afternoon, I was spryer 'n a steer agin.'
 
 MOSTLY PROFESSIONAL 69 
 
 " ' What is your physic, if I may ask, Mr. 
 Butters ? ' 
 
 " ' Woodpile ! ' says the old fellow. 
 
 " ' Woodpile ? ' said I. 
 
 " ' Cord o' wood. Axe. Sweat o' the brow. 
 Them's the best physic I know of.' 
 
 " He smoked on for a bit, and I sat and 
 looked at him, admiring how the world was 
 made. I don't know whether you read Kip 
 ling, Miss Vesta. I was rewarded for my 
 patience. 
 
 "'Young feller,' said the old man, after 
 awhile, ' how old do you s'pose I be ? ' 
 
 " ' Seventy,' said I ; and he looked it, not a 
 day over. 
 
 "'Add fifteen to that,' says he, 'and you 
 have it. Eighty-five year last Jenooary. You 
 are under thirty, I reckon ? Thought so ! 
 Well, I was gettin' on for sixty year old when 
 you was born. See ? ' 
 
 "I did see, but I wasn't going to give in
 
 70 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 yet. 'Did you ever study medicine, Mr. 
 Butters ? ' I said. 
 
 " ' Study medicine ? No, sir ! but I've lived 
 with my own bones and insides till I know 
 'em consid'abte well ; and I've seen consid'able 
 of folks, them as doctored and them as didn't. 
 My wives doctored, all three of 'em. I buried 
 two of 'em, and good ones, too ; and, like as 
 not, I'll bury the third. She ain't none too 
 rugged this summer, though she ain't but 
 seventy. But, what I say is, start well, and 
 stay well, and don't werry. You tell your 
 patients that, and fust thing you know you 
 won't have any.' " 
 
 "A singularly ignorant person, this Mr. 
 Butters!" said Miss Phoebe. 
 
 "I don't know!" said the young doctor. 
 "I'm not so sure about that. I know it 
 would be a bad thing for the medical profes 
 sion if his ideas were generally taken up. 
 Well, he went on over his pipe. I wish you
 
 MOSTLY PROFESSIONAL 71 
 
 could have seen him, Miss Yesta. He looked 
 like a veritable patriarch come to life. Fancy 
 Abraham with a T. D. pipe, and you have 
 Ithuriel Butters. Awfully sad for those poor 
 old duffers not to have tobacco. I beg your 
 pardon, Miss Blyth. 
 
 " ' Yes,' said the old fellow. ' I've seen folks 
 as doctored, and I've seen folks as fooled/ 
 
 ' Fooled ? ' said I. 
 
 "'Notions; fool's tricks; idees! Take my 
 brother Eeuel. He used to have rheumatiz; 
 had it bad. One day there was a thunder-storm, 
 and he was out gettin' in his hay, and was 
 struck by lightnin'. Fluid run along the rake 
 and spit in his face, he used to say. He lost 
 the use of his eyes and hands for six months, 
 but he never had rheumatiz again for twenty 
 years. Swore it was the electricity; said he 
 swallered it, and it got into his system and 
 cured him. What do you say to that, young 
 feller?'
 
 72 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " ' It's an experiment I never tried/ said I. 
 ' I'm not going to commit myself, Mr. Butters. 
 But that's a good story.' 
 
 " ' Hold on ! ' said he ; ' that ain't all 'Bout 
 twenty-five years after that Reuel was gettin' 
 on by that time he was out fishin', and a 
 squall come up and swamped his boat. He 
 was in the water quite a spell, and come next 
 day he was all doubled up with rheumatiz. 
 He was the maddest man you ever see. He 
 wouldn't do a thing, only sit hunched up in 
 his chair and ask about the weather. It was 
 summer-time, and good hayin' weather as a 
 rule, Bumbye come a fryin' hot day, and 
 sure enough we had a thunder-storm in the 
 afternoon. When it was bangin' away good 
 and solid, Eeuel hitched himself out of his 
 chair, took an iron rake in one hand and a 
 hoe in the other, crep' out of the house, and 
 went and sot down under a tree in the middle 
 of the pasture. Wife tried to stop him, but
 
 MOSTLY PROFESSIONAL 73 
 
 she might as well have tried to stop the light- 
 nin'. Well, sir, the tree was struck, and Keuel 
 never had no more rheumatiz. Couldn't tell 
 which was tree and which was him. That 
 comes of havin' idees.'" 
 
 "Dear me!" said Miss Vesta. "What a 
 painful story ! His poor wife ! " 
 
 "Such impious ignorance I think I never 
 heard of!" said Miss Phoebe, rigidly. "I 
 should think the a family a most un 
 profitable one for you to visit, Doctor Strong." 
 
 " But so consistent ! " said Geoffrey. " Know 
 ing their own minds, and carrying out their 
 own theories of hygiene. It's very refreshing, 
 I must admit. But" Geoffrey saw that 
 his hostesses were not amused, nor anything 
 but pained and shocked "this is enough 
 about Ithuriel Butters, isn't it ? We decided 
 that he would better take a little something 
 dark-coloured, with a good solid smell to it, 
 to please his ' women-folks ; ' he'll go out some
 
 74 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 day like the snuff of a candle, and he knows 
 it. But you don't want to try the lightning 
 cure, do you, Miss Blyth ? " 
 
 " I most certainly do not ! " said Miss 
 Phoebe, concisely ; and she reflected that even 
 the best and most intelligent of men might 
 often be lacking in delicate perception.
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 LETTER -WRITING AND HYSTERICS 
 
 THE young doctor sat in his room writing. 
 It was a pleasant room, looking upon the 
 garden, and in style and furnishing altogether 
 to the young doctor's taste. He liked the tall 
 narrow mantel, with its delicate mouldings; 
 he liked the white paint, and the high wainscot 
 ing against which the old mahogany came out 
 so well; and he liked the mahogany itself, 
 which was in quaint and graceful shapes. 
 The dimity curtains, too, with their ball and 
 tassel fringe, were of such a fresh clear white. 
 They had never been dirty, they never could 
 be dirty, the young doctor thought; some 
 things must always be fresh and clean; like 
 
 75
 
 76 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 that girl's dresses. He was sitting in his 
 favourite chair; a chair that stimulated to 
 effort or wooed to repose, according to the 
 attitude one assumed in it. Geoffrey Strong 
 felt a sort of ownership in this chair, for he 
 had discovered the secret pocket in one arm ; 
 the tiny panel which, when pressed one day 
 by his careless fingers, slipped aside, revealing 
 a dark polished well, and in the well an ancient 
 vinaigrette of green and gold glass. Some 
 times Geoffrey would take out the vinaigrette 
 and sniff its faded perfume, and it told him a 
 new story every time. Now, however, it lay 
 quiet in its nest, for Geoffrey was writing busily. 
 
 "You can't laugh any more at me and my old 
 ladies, Jim. There's a new development, a young 
 lady ; niece, visitor here, and invalid visitor at that. 
 Neurasthenia, overwork at college, the old story. 
 When will young women learn that they are not 
 young men? Malady in this case takes the form 
 of aversion to the male sex in general, and G. S. in 
 particular. Handsome, sullen creature, tawny hair,
 
 LETTER -WRITING AND HYSTERICS 77 
 
 eyes no particular colour, but very brilliant ; pupils 
 much dilated. I won't bother you with symptoms 
 while you are off on your vacation, but she has 
 some interesting ones. The dear old ladies want 
 me to prescribe for her, but she prefers to play with 
 pills herself. Has a remarkable voice, deep notes 
 now and again that thrill like the middle tones of 
 a 'cello ; or might, if they said anything but Please 
 pass the butter 1' If she were better tempered, I 
 should be tempted to send for you ; you are simply 
 spoiling for some one to fall in love with, I can tell 
 that from your last letter. The pretty brunette had 
 not intellectuality enough, hadn't she? My dear 
 fellow, as if that had anything to do with it ! You 
 were not ready, that was all. You fall in love by 
 clockwork once every year ; and it is time now. If 
 you should see the P. B. again to-morrow, you'd be 
 lost directly. As for ine I should think you 
 would be tired of asking. No, I am not in love. 
 No, I feel no inclination whatever to become so. 
 No, there is no ' charmer ; (what vile expressions 
 you use, James ; go back to the English Department, 
 and learn how to speak of Woman !) who interests 
 me in the least (except pathologically, of course), 
 except Miss Yesta Blyth, aged sixty. I am in love 
 with her, I grant you ; anybody would be, with eyes
 
 78 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 in his head. Don't I know that I would amount to 
 twice as much if the society of women formed part 
 of my life? Numskull, it does form part of it, a 
 very important part. In the first place, I have my 
 patients. Body of me, my patients 1 Did I not sit 
 a stricken hour with Mrs. Abigail Plummer yester 
 day afternoon ? She ' feels a crawling in her pipes,' 
 I'll spare you Mrs. Plummer, but you must hear 
 how Mrs. Cotton cured her lumbago. (I am still 
 hunting rheumatic affections, yes, and always shall 
 be.) She took a quart of rum, my Christian friend ; 
 she put into it a pound and a half of sulphur and 
 three-quarters of a pound of cream tartar, and took 
 4 a good swaller ' three or four times a day. There's 
 therapeutics for you, sir ! Lady weighs three hun 
 dred pounds if she does an ounce, and has a colour 
 like a baby's. Well, I could go on indefinitely. 
 That's in the first place. In. the second, I have 
 here in this house society that is absolutely to my 
 mind. Experience is life, you grant that. There 
 fore, the person of experience is the person who 
 really lives. (Of course I admit exceptions.) There 
 fore, the society of a woman of sixty an intelligent 
 woman is infinitely more to be desired than that 
 of a callow girl with nothing but eyes and theories. 
 It is profitable, it is delightful; and this with no
 
 LETTER - WRITING AND HYSTERICS 79 
 
 hurrying of the heart, no upsetting of the nerves, 
 none of the deplorable symptoms that I observe 
 annually in 1 my friend Mr. James Swift. That for 
 the second place. There is a third. Jim, Jim, do 
 you forget that I was brought up with six female 
 cousins, and all of them girls?' They were virtuous 
 young women, every one of them ; one or two were 
 good looking ; four of them (including the plainest), 
 have married, and I trust their husbands find them 
 interesting. I did not, but I ' learned about women 
 from them,' as the lynx-eyed schoolboy does learn. 
 I divided them into three classes, sugary, vinegary, 
 peppery ; to-day I should be more professional ; let 
 us say saccharine, acidulated, irritant. These classes 
 still seem to me to include the greater part of young 
 womankind. Sorry to displease, but sich am de 
 facts. And yes, I still sing < aber heirathen ist nie 
 mein Sinn! ' Business ? oh, so so ! A country 
 doctor doesn't make a fortune, but he learns a power, 
 if he isn't an idiot. Now here is enough about me, 
 in all conscience. When you write, tell me about 
 yourself, and what the other fellows are doing. 
 After all, that is " 
 
 Geoffrey came to the end of his paper, and 
 paused to take a fresh sheet. Glancing up as
 
 80 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 he did so, lie also glanced out of the window, 
 to see what was going on in the garden. He 
 always liked to keep in touch with the gar 
 den, and was on intimate terms with every 
 bird and blossom in it. It was neither bird 
 nor blossom that his eyes lighted on now. A 
 young girl stood on the gravel-path, near his 
 favourite syringa arbour. A hammock hung 
 over her arm, and she carried a book and a 
 pillow. She was looking about her, evidently 
 trying to select a place to hang her hammock. 
 Geoffrey considered her. She was dressed in 
 clear white; her hair, of a tawny reddish 
 yellow, hung in one heavy braid over her 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Oh, yes, she is handsome," said Geoffrey, 
 addressing the syringa-bush. "I never said 
 she wasn't handsome. The question is, would 
 she like me to hang that hammock for her, 
 or would she consider it none of my busi 
 ness ? "
 
 LETTER -WRITING AND HYSTERICS 81 
 
 At this moment the girl dropped the book ; 
 then the pillow slipped from her hands. She 
 threw down the hammock with a petulant 
 gesture and stood looking at the syringa-bush 
 as if it were her mortal enemy. Geoffrey 
 Strong laid down his pen. 
 
 A few minutes later he came sauntering 
 leisurely round the corner. One would have 
 said he had been spending an hour in the gar 
 den, and was now going in. 
 
 "Good morning, Miss Blyth! glorious day, 
 isn't it ? going to sling a hammock ? let me 
 do it, won't you?" 
 
 Vesta Blyth looked at him with sombre eyes. 
 " I couldn't hold it ! " she said, unwillingly. 
 " There is no strength left in my hands." 
 
 " You are still tired, you see," said Geoffrey, 
 cheerfully, as he picked up the hammock. 
 "That's perfectly natural." 
 
 "It isn't natural!" said the girl, fiercely. 
 "It's devilish!"
 
 82 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " This is a good place," said Geoffrey, paying 
 no attention to her. "Combination of shade 
 and sun, you see. Pillow at this end ? There 1 
 how is that ? " 
 
 " Thank you ! it will do very well" 
 
 She stretched herself at full length in the 
 hammock. Her movements were perfectly 
 graceful, he noted ; and he made a swift com 
 parison with the way his cousins flounced or 
 twittered or slumped into a hammock. 
 
 He stood looking at her, his hand still on 
 the hammock-rope. He was conscious only of 
 a friendly feeling of compassion for this fair 
 young creature, built for vigour and an active 
 life, now condemned for months, it might be 
 years, of weariness and pain. Whether any 
 unconscious keenness of scrutiny crept into 
 his eyes or not, is not known ; but as Vesta 
 Blyth looked up and met their gaze, a wave of 
 angry crimson rushed over her face and neck. 
 
 "Doctor Strong," she said, violently, her
 
 He stood looking at her, his hand still on the 
 hammock rope.
 
 LETTER -WRITING AND HYSTERICS 83 
 
 voice low and vibrating, as some women's 
 are in passion, "I must request you not to 
 look at me ! " 
 
 Geoffrey started, and coloured in his turn. 
 " I beg your pardon ! " he said. " I was not 
 aware I assure you I had no intention of 
 being rude, Miss Blyth." 
 
 "You were not rude!" Vesta swept on. 
 " I am rude ; I am unreasonable, I am absurd. 
 I can't help it. I will not be looked at pro 
 fessionally. Half the people in this village 
 would welcome your professional glance as a 
 beam from heaven, and bask in it, and drop 
 every symptom as if it were a pearl, but I am 
 not a ' case.' I am simply a human being, who 
 asks nothing but to be let alone." 
 
 She stopped abruptly, her bosom heaving, 
 her eyes like black agates with fire behind 
 them, looking straight past him at the trees 
 beyond. " If you wish to put me to the last 
 humiliation," she added, hurriedly, "you may
 
 84 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 wait and have the satisfaction of seeing me 
 cry; if not " 
 
 But Geoffrey was gone, fleeing into the 
 house with the sound of stormy sobs chasing 
 him like Furies. He never stopped till he 
 reached his own room, where he flung himself 
 into his chair in most unprofessional agitation. 
 The window was open what a fool he was 
 to leave windows open ! and the sound fol 
 lowed him ; he could not shut it out. Dread 
 ful sobs, choking, agonising; he felt, as if 
 he saw it, the whole slender figure shaken 
 with them. Good heavens ! the girl would 
 be in convulsions if she went on at this 
 rate. 
 
 Now the sobs died away into long moans, 
 into quivering breaths; now they broke out 
 again, insistent, terrible. Broken words among 
 them, too. 
 
 "What shall I do? Oh, dear! oh, dear I 
 what shall I do?"
 
 LETTER -WRITING AND HYSTERICS 85 
 
 Geoffrey, who had been trying to look over 
 some papers, started up and paced the room 
 hurriedly. "This this is very curious !" 
 he was trying to say to himself. "Hysteria 
 pure and simple very interesting I must 
 note the duration of the paroxysms. Good 
 God ! can't somebody stop her ? perfectly in 
 human, to let a creature go on like that!" 
 
 He was at the door, with some vague idea 
 of alarming the house, when a soft knock was 
 heard on the other side. He flung the door 
 open, and startled Miss Vesta so that she gave 
 a little cry of dismay, and retreated to the 
 head of the stairs. " Pray excuse me, Doctor 
 Strong," she said. " I see that you are occu 
 pied ; I pray you to excuse me ! " 
 
 " No, no ! " said Geoffrey, hurriedly. ** I am 
 not it's nothing at all What can I do for 
 you, Miss Vesta ? Do come in, please ! " 
 
 "My niece," said the little lady, with a 
 troubled look, " is in a highly nervous condi-
 
 86 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 tion to-day, Doctor Strong. She is weep 
 ing. My sister thought you might have " 
 she paused, as Miss Phcebe's crisp and decided 
 tones came up over the stairs. 
 
 "Little Vesta has got into a crying-spell, 
 Doctor Strong. I want a little valerian for 
 her, please. I will go down and give it to her 
 myself, if you will hand it to my sister." 
 
 " In one moment, Miss Blyth," called Geof 
 frey, in his most composed and professional 
 tones. Then, seizing Miss Vesta's hand, he 
 almost dragged her into the room, and shut 
 the door. 
 
 "Don't let her go!" he said, hurriedly, as 
 he sought and poured out the valerian. " Take 
 it yourself, please, Miss Vesta, please ! Miss 
 Blyth will that is, she is less gentle than 
 you ; if your niece is in such a condition as 
 as you say, you are the one to soothe her. 
 Will you go ? Please do." 
 
 "Dear Doctor Strong," said Miss Vesta,
 
 LETTER -WRITING AND HYSTERICS 87 
 
 panting a little, "are you I fear you are 
 unwell yourself. .You alarm me, my dear 
 young friend." 
 
 " I am a brute," said Geoffrey ; " a clumsy, 
 unfeeling brute ! " He kissed her little white 
 wrinkled hand; then, still holding it, paused 
 to listen. The voice came up again from the 
 place of torture. 
 
 "What shall I do? Oh, dear! oh, dear! 
 what shall I do ? " 
 
 He pressed the glass in Miss Vesta's hand. 
 " There ! there ! a teaspoonful at once, please ; 
 but you will be better than medicine. Tell 
 Miss Blyth tell her I want very much to 
 speak to her, please ! Ask if she could come 
 up .here now, this moment, just for two or 
 three minutes. And you'll go down yourself, 
 won't you, Miss Vesta dear Miss Vesta ? " 
 
 He was so absorbed in listening that he did 
 not hear the creaking of Miss Phoebe's morocco 
 shoes on the stairs; and when she appeared
 
 88 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 before him, flushed and slightly out of breath, 
 he stared at the good lady as if he had never 
 seen her before. 
 
 "You wished to see me, Doctor Strong?" 
 Miss Phoebe began. She was half pleased, 
 half ruffled, at being summoned in this impe 
 rious way. 
 
 " Yes oh, yes," answered Geoffrey, vaguely. 
 " Come in, please, Miss Blyth. Won't you sit 
 down no, I wouldn't sit near the window, 
 it's damp to-day (it was not in the least 
 damp). Sit here, in my chair. Did you 
 know there was a secret pocket in this chair ? 
 Very curious thing ! " 
 
 " I was aware of it," said Miss Phoebe, with 
 dignity. "Was that what you wished to say 
 to me, Doctor Strong ? " 
 
 "No oh, no (thank Heaven, she has 
 stopped! that angel is with her). I I am 
 ashamed to trouble you, Miss Blyth, but you 
 said you would be so very good as to look over
 
 LETTEE -WRITING AND HYSTERICS 89 
 
 my shirts some day, and see if they are worth 
 putting on new collars and cuffs. It's really an 
 imposition ; any time will do, if you are busy 
 now. I only thought, hearing your voice " 
 
 "There is no time like the present," said 
 Miss Phoebe, in her most gracious tone. " It 
 will be a pleasure, I assure you, Doctor Strong, 
 to look over any portions of your wardrobe, 
 and give you such advice as I can. I always 
 made my honoured father's shirts after my 
 dear mother's death, so I am, perhaps, not 
 wholly unfitted for this congenial task. Ah, 
 machine-made ! " 
 
 " Beg pardon ! " said Geoffrey, who had been 
 listening to something else. 
 
 "These shirts were made with the aid of 
 the sewing-machine, I perceive," said Miss 
 Phcebe. " No oh, no, it is nothing unusual. 
 Very few persons, I believe, make shirts 
 entirely by hand in these days. I always set 
 the same number of stitches in my father's
 
 90 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 shirts, five thousand and sixty. He always 
 said that no machine larger than a cambric 
 needle should touch his linen." 
 
 "Then you don't think they are worth 
 new collars ? " said Geoffrey, abstractedly. 
 
 " Did I convey that impression ? " said Miss 
 Phoebe, with mild surprise. " I had no such 
 intention, Doctor Strong. I think that a 
 skilful person, with some knowledge of needle 
 work, could make these garments (though 
 machine-made) last some months yet. You 
 see, Doctor Strong, if she takes this " 
 
 It was a neat and well-sustained little ora 
 tion that Miss Phcebe delivered, emphasising 
 her remarks with the cuff of a shirt; but it 
 was lost on Geoffrey Strong. He was listen 
 ing to another voice that came quavering up 
 from the garden below, a sweet high voice, like 
 a wavering thread of silver. No more sobs ; 
 and Miss Vesta was singing; the sweetest 
 song, Geoffrey thought, that he had ever heard.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INFORMATION 
 
 THE next day and the next Geoffrey avoided 
 the garden as if it were a haunt of cobras. 
 The dining-room, too, was a place of terror to 
 him, and at each meal he paused before enter 
 ing the room, nerving himself for what he 
 might have to face. This was wholly unrea 
 sonable, he told himself repeatedly; it was 
 ridiculous; it was the young man was not 
 one to spare himself it was unprofessional. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I know all that," he replied ; " but 
 they shouldn't cry. There ought to be a law 
 against their crying." 
 
 Here it occurred to him that he had seen 
 his cousins cry many times, and had never 
 
 91
 
 92 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 minded it ; but that was entirely different, he 
 said. 
 
 However, he need not distress himself, it 
 appeared; Vesta Blyth kept her room for 
 several days. At first Geoffrey found it 
 easier not to speak of her ; but the third day 
 he pounced on Miss Vesta when she was fill 
 ing her lamp, and startled her so that she 
 almost dropped her scissors. 
 
 "Excuse me, Miss Vesta," he said; "what 
 funny scissors ! I shouldn't think you could 
 cut anything with them. I was going to ask 
 how is your niece to-day? I trust the 
 hysterical condition is passing away ? " 
 
 Miss Vesta sighed. "Yes, Doctor Strong," 
 she said. " Vesta is quiet again, oh, yes, very 
 quiet, and sleeping better ; we are very grate 
 ful for your interest in her." 
 
 A few professional questions and answers 
 followed. There were no acute or alarming 
 symptoms. There was little to do for the
 
 INFORMATION 93 
 
 girl, except to let her rest and " come round ; " 
 she would recover in time, but it might be a 
 long time. Geoffrey felt somehow younger 
 than he had ; neurasthenia was a pretty word 
 on paper, but he did not feel so sure about 
 making a specialty of it. 
 
 Miss Vesta fluttered about her lamp; he 
 became conscious that she wanted to say some 
 thing to him. She began with sundry little 
 plaintive murmurings, which might have been 
 addressed to him or to the lamp. 
 
 "Pity! pity! yes, indeed. So bright and 
 young, so full of hope and joy, and darkened 
 so soon. Yes, indeed, very sad ! " 
 
 Geoffrey helped her. "What is it, Miss 
 Vesta ? " he asked, tenderly. " You are going 
 to tell me something." 
 
 Miss Vesta looked around her timidly. 
 "Sister Phoebe did not wish me to mention 
 it," she said, in a low tone. " She thinks it 
 indelicate. But you are so kind, Doctor
 
 94 GEOFFREY STBONG 
 
 Strong, and you are a physician. Poor little 
 Vesta has had a disappointment, a cruel disap 
 pointment." 
 
 Geoffrey murmured something, he hardly 
 knew what. The little lady hurried on. " It 
 is not that I have any sympathy with I 
 never liked the object not at all, I assure 
 you, Doctor Strong. But her heart was fixed, 
 and she had had every reason to suppose her 
 self it has been a terrible blow to her. 
 Eenunciation in youth is a hard thing, 
 my dear young friend, a very hard thing." 
 
 She pressed his hand, and hurried away 
 with her scissors, giving one backward look 
 to make sure that the lamp showed no 
 aspect that did not shine with the last touch 
 of brilliancy. 
 
 Geoffrey Strong went down into the gar 
 den he had not been there since the day of 
 the sobbing and paced about, never think 
 ing of the pipe in his pocket. He found him-
 
 INFORMATION 95 
 
 self talking to the blue larkspur. "Beast!" 
 was what he called this beautiful plant. 
 " Dolt ! ass ! inhuman brute ! If I had the 
 kicking of you "here he recovered his 
 silence; found pebbles to kick, and pursued 
 them savagely up one path and down another. 
 A mental flash-light showed him the ruffian 
 who had wounded this bright creature; had 
 led her on to love him, and then either 
 betrayed his brutal nature so that hers rose 
 up in revolt, or just as likely that kind 
 of man would do anything gone off and left 
 her. His picture revealed a smart-looking per 
 son with black hair and a waxed moustache, 
 and complexion of feminine red and white 
 (Geoffrey called it beef and suet). 
 
 "The extraordinary thing is, what women 
 see in such a fellow ! " he told the syringa. 
 The syringa drooped, and looked sympathetic. 
 The hammock was hanging there still poor 
 little thing ! Geoffrey did not mean the ham-
 
 96 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 mock. He stood looking at the place, and 
 winced as the sobs struck his ear again; 
 memory's ear this time, but that was hardly 
 less keen. How terribly she grieved! she 
 must have cared for him bang ! went the 
 pebbles again. 
 
 There was a rustle behind the syringa-bush. 
 Geoffrey looked up and saw Vesta Blyth stand 
 ing before him. 
 
 He could not run away. He must not look 
 at her professionally. Despair imparted to his 
 countenance a look of stony vacuity which sat 
 oddly on it. 
 
 The girl looked at him, and it seemed as if 
 the shadow of a smile looked out of her shad 
 owy eyes. "I thought you might be here, 
 Doctor Strong," she said, quietly. "I am 
 coming in to tea to-night. I am entirely my 
 self again, I assure you and first I wished 
 I want to apologise to you for my absurd 
 behaviour the other day."
 
 INFORMATION 97 
 
 " Please don't ! " said Geoffrey. 
 
 " I must ; I have to. I am weak, you see, 
 and I lost hold of myself, that was all. It 
 was purely hysterical, as you of course saw. 
 I have had a great trouble. Perhaps my 
 aunts may have told you." 
 
 Good God! she wasn't going to talk about 
 it ? Geoffrey thought a subterranean dungeon 
 would be a pleasant place. 
 
 "I yes!" he admitted, feeling the red 
 curling around his ears. " Miss Vesta did say 
 something it's an infernal shame ! I wish 
 I could tell you how sorry I am." 
 
 " Thank you ! " said the girl ; and a rich 
 note thrilled in her voice. Yes it certainly 
 was like a 'cello. " I did not know how you 
 would you are very kind, Doctor Strong. 
 Dear Aunt Vesta; she would try to make 
 the best of it, I know. Aunt Phoebe will not 
 speak of it, she is too much shocked, but 
 Aunt Vesta is angelic."
 
 98 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 "Indeed she is!" said the young doctor, 
 heartily. "And she is so pretty, too, and so 
 soft and creamy; I never saw any one like 
 her." 
 
 There was a moment of dreadful silence. 
 Geoffrey sought desperately for a subject of 
 conversation, but the frivolous spirit of trag 
 edy refused to suggest anything except boots, 
 and women never understand boots. 
 
 The strange thing was, that the girl did 
 not appear to find the silence dreadful. She 
 stood absently curling and uncurling a syringa- 
 leaf between her long white fingers. All the 
 lines of her were long, except the curl of 
 her upper lip, and there was not an un 
 graceful one among them. Her face was 
 quietly sad, but there was no sign of confu 
 sion in it. Good heavens ! what were women 
 made of? 
 
 Presently she turned to him, and again the 
 shadow of a smile crept into her eyes. " You
 
 INFORMATION 99 
 
 don't ask whether I am better, Doctor Strong," 
 she said ; and there was even a faint sugges 
 tion of mischief in her voice. 
 
 "No!" said Geoffrey. "I shall never ask 
 you that again." 
 
 The shadow turned to a spark. "You 
 might help me!" she exclaimed. "At least 
 you need not make it harder for me " she 
 checked herself, and went on in a carefully 
 even tone. " I am so ashamed of myself ! " 
 she said. " I thought when I came here that 
 I had quite got myself in hand ; the other day 
 taught me a lesson. I was abominably rude, 
 and I beg your pardon." 
 
 She held out her hand frankly; Geoffrey 
 took it, and was conscious that, though it was 
 too cold, it had the same quality that Miss 
 Vesta's hand had, a touch like rose-leaves, 
 smooth and light and dry. She shook hands 
 as if she meant it, too, instead of giving a limp 
 flap, as some girls did. It was impossible to
 
 100 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 tell the colour of her eyes ; but she was speak 
 ing again. 
 
 "And I want to say this, too. There 
 isn't anything to do for me, you know; I 
 must just wait. But I know how I should 
 feel in your place; and if there seem to be 
 any interesting or unusual symptoms, I will 
 tell you if you like?" 
 
 "Thank you!" said Geoffrey. "It would 
 be very good of you, I'm sure." 
 
 She turned to the syringa-bush again, and 
 breaking off a spray, fastened it in her white 
 gown. "You think of studying nerves, I be 
 lieve ? " she said, presently. " As a specialty, I 
 mean. Well, they are horrible things." She 
 spoke abruptly, and as if half to herself. " To 
 think of this network of treachery spreading 
 through and through us, lying in wait for 
 us, leading us on, buoying us up with false 
 strength, sham elasticity and then collaps 
 ing like a toy balloon, leaving nothing but a
 
 INFORMATION 101 
 
 rag, a tatter of humanity. Oh, it is shame 
 ful ! it is disgraceful ! Look at me ! what busi 
 ness have I with nerves ? " 
 
 She stretched out her long arms and threw 
 her head back. The gesture was powerful; 
 one saw that strength was the natural order 
 of life with this lithe, long-limbed creature. 
 But the next instant she drooped together 
 like a tired lily. 
 
 " I know that is nonsense ! " she said, mood 
 ily. "I know it just as well as you do. I 
 am tired; I think I'll go in now." 
 
 "Why not try the hammock?" Geoffrey 
 suggested. "The garden is better than the 
 house to-day. Or do you like the water? 
 My canoe came yesterday ; why not come out 
 for a short paddle ? " 
 
 The girl looked at him doubtfully. "I 
 don't know!" 
 
 "Best thing in the world for you!" said 
 Geoffrey, who had fully recovered his ease,
 
 102 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 and felt benevolently professional. " You 
 ought to keep out-of-doors all you can. I'll 
 get some shawls and a pillow." 
 
 Vesta looked longingly out at the water, 
 then doubtfully again at the young doctor. 
 " If you are sure " she said ; " if you really 
 have time, Doctor Strong. Your patients " 
 
 " Bother my patients ! " said the young 
 doctor. 
 
 An hour later, Miss Phoebe Blyth was con 
 fronting a flushed and panting matron at the 
 front door. 
 
 "No, Mrs. Worrett, he has not come in 
 yet. It is past his customary hour, but he 
 has been detained, no doubt, by some urgent 
 case. Doctor Strong never spares himself. 
 I fear for him sometimes, I must coofess. 
 Will you step in and wait, or shall I 
 colic ? oh ! if that is all, it will hardly be 
 necessary to send the doctor out. I shall
 
 IN FORM A TION 103 
 
 take the liberty of giving you a bottle of 
 my checkerberry cordial. I have made it for 
 forty years, and Doctor Strong approves of it 
 highly. Give the baby half a teaspoonful in 
 a wine-glass of hot water, and repeat the dose 
 in an hour if not relieved. Not at all, I beg of 
 you, Mrs. Worrett. It is a pleasure to be able 
 to relieve the babe, as well as to spare Doctor 
 Strong a little. He comes in quite exhausted 
 sometimes from these long trips. Good even 
 ing to you, ma'am."
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 FESTIVITY 
 
 THE Ladies' Society was to meet at the 
 Temple of Vesta ; or, rather (since that name 
 for the brick house was known only to the 
 old and the young doctor), at the Blyth Girls'. 
 The sisters always entertained the society once 
 a year, and it was apt to be the favourite 
 meeting of the season. It was the peaceful 
 pastime of two weeks, for Miss Phoebe and 
 Miss Vesta, to prepare for the annual festivity, 
 by polishing the already shining house to a 
 hardly imaginable point of brilliant cleanliness. 
 In the kitchen of the Temple, Diploma Crotty 
 ruled supreme, as she had ruled for twenty 
 years. Miss Phoebe was occasionally permitted 
 
 104
 
 FESTIVITY 105 
 
 to trifle with a jelly or a cream, but even this 
 was upon sufferance ; while if Miss Vesta ever 
 had any culinary aspirations, they were put 
 down with a high hand, and an injunction not 
 to meddle with them things, but see to her 
 parlours and her chaney. This injunction, 
 backed by her own spotless ideals, was faith 
 fully carried out by Miss Vesta. Miss Phrebe, 
 by right of her position as elder sister and 
 martyr to rheumatism (though she sometimes 
 forgot her martyrdom in these days), took 
 charge of the upper class of preparation; ex 
 amined the lace curtains in search of a possible 
 stitch dropped in the net, " did up " the frilled 
 linen bags that formed the decent clothing of 
 the window-tassels, the tidies, and the entire 
 stock of " laces " owned by her and her sister. 
 One could never be sure beforehand which 
 collar one would want to wear when the 
 evening came, and while one was about it, it 
 was as well to do them all ; so for many days
 
 106 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 the sewing-room was adorned with solemn 
 bottles swathed in white, on which collars, 
 cuffs, and scarfs were delicately stitched. Miss 
 Vesta cleaned. 
 
 For some days the young doctor had been 
 conscious of a stronger odour than usual of 
 beeswax and rosin. Also, the tiny room by 
 the front door, which was sacred as his office, 
 began to shine with a kind of inward light 
 No one was ever there when he came in, 
 no one, that is, save the occasional patient, 
 but he always found that his papers had as 
 sembled themselves in orderly piles on the 
 table where he was wont to throw them; 
 that the table itself had become so glossy 
 that things slipped about or fell off whenever 
 he moved them; and that no matter where 
 he left his pipes, he always found them ranged 
 with exact symmetry on the mantel-shelf. 
 (If he could have known the affectionate 
 terror with which those delicate white old
 
 FESTIVITY 107 
 
 fingers touched the brown, fragrant, masculine 
 things ! There were four of the pipes, Zuleika, 
 Haidee, Nourmahal, and Scheherezade ; the 
 fellows used to call them his harem, and him 
 Haroun Alraschid.) 
 
 Geoffrey was always careful about wiping 
 his feet when he came in; he was a well- 
 brought-up lad, and never meant to leave a 
 speck on the polished floor. Now, however, 
 he was aware of fragrant, newly rubbed spots 
 that appeared as if by magic every time he 
 returned through the entry after passing along 
 it. Several times he saw a gray gown flutter 
 and disappear through a doorway; but it 
 might have been Diploma. 
 
 One day, however, it was the very day 
 of the party, he chanced to come into the 
 parlour for a match or the like, and found 
 Miss Vesta on her knees, apparently praying 
 to one of the teak-wood chairs; and the girl 
 Vesta, white as wax, standing beside another,
 
 108 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 rubbing it with even, practised strokes. The 
 young doctor looked from one to the other. 
 
 " What does this mean ? " he said. " What 
 upon earth are you doing, you two ? " 
 
 Miss Vesta looked up, pink and breath 
 less. 
 
 " My dear Doctor Strong, I wish you would 
 use your professional influence with Vesta. I 
 am making a little preparation, as you see, for 
 this evening. It I take pleasure in it, and 
 find the exercise beneficial. But Vesta is 
 entirely unfit for it, as I have repeatedly 
 pointed out to her. She persists " the little 
 lady paused for breath. The young doctor 
 took the cloth from the girl's hand, and opened 
 the door. 
 
 "You would better go and lie down, Miss 
 Blyth," he said, abruptly. I'll see to this " 
 he said " tomfoolery," but not aloud. 
 
 The colour crept into Vesta's white cheeks, 
 the first he had seen there. " I don't want to
 
 FESTIVITY 109 
 
 lie down, thank you ! " she said, coldly. " Give 
 me the cloth, please ! " 
 
 Their eyes measured swords for an instant. 
 Then 
 
 " You can hardly stand now," said Geoffrey, 
 quietly. " If you faint I shall have to carry 
 you up-stairs, and that " 
 
 She was gone, but he still saw her face like 
 a white flame. He looked after her a moment, 
 then turned to Miss Vesta, who was still on 
 her knees. His look of annoyance changed 
 to one of distress. "Dear Miss Vesta, will 
 you please get up this moment ? What can 
 you be doing ? Are you praying to Saint 
 Beeswax ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, Doctor Strong. We never the 
 Orthodox Church but you are jesting, my 
 dear young friend. I a little healthful 
 exercise oh, please, Doctor Geoffrey ! " 
 
 For two strong hands lifted her bodily, and 
 set her down in her own particular armchair.
 
 110 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " Exercise is recommended for me," said the 
 little lady, piteously. " You yourself, Doctor 
 Geoffrey, said I ought to take more exercise." 
 
 "So you shall You shall dance all the 
 evening, if you like. I'll play the fiddle, and 
 you and the minister no, no, I don't mean 
 the minister! Don't look like that! you and 
 Deacon Weight shall dance together. It will 
 be the elephant and the fl butterfly. But I 
 am going to do this, Miss Vesta." 
 
 He in turn went down on his knees to the 
 teak-wood chair, and examined it curiously. 
 " Is this supposed to need cleaning ? " he 
 asked ; " or is it to be used as a looking-glass ? 
 Perhaps you had just finished this one ? " He 
 looked hopefully at Miss Vesta, and saw her 
 face cloud with distress. 
 
 " I was about to polish it a little," she said. 
 " It is already clean, in a measure, but a little 
 extra polish on such occasions " 
 
 Geoffrey did not wait for more, but rubbed
 
 FESTIVITY . Ill 
 
 away with might and main, talking the 
 while. 
 
 " You see, Miss Vesta, it is very important 
 for me to learn about these things. You and 
 Miss Phoebe may turn me out some day, and 
 then the lonely bachelor will have to set up 
 his own establishment, and cook his own 
 dinner, and polish his own chairs. Do you 
 think I could cook a dinner? I'll tell you 
 what we'll do, some day ; we'll send Diploma 
 off for a holiday, and I'll get the dinner." 
 
 " Oh, my dear young friend, I fear that 
 would not be possible. Diploma is so set in 
 her ways ! She will hardly let me set foot in 
 the kitchen, but Sister Phosbe goes in when 
 ever she pleases. I I think that chair is 
 as bright as it can be, Doctor Strong. I am 
 greatly obliged to you. It looks beautiful, 
 and now I need not trouble you further ; you 
 are much occupied, I am sure. Oh, pray 
 pray give me back the cloth, Doctor Geoffrey."
 
 112 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 But Geoffrey declared he had not had such 
 fun for weeks. " Consider my biceps," he said. 
 " You ought to consider my biceps, Miss Vesta." 
 
 He went from chair to chair, Miss Vesta 
 following him with little plaintive murmurs, 
 in which distress and admiration were 
 equally blended; and rubbed, and rubbed 
 again, till all the room was full of dark glory. 
 There was one bad moment, when the weak 
 leg of the three-cornered table threatened to 
 give way under his vigorous attack, and pro 
 tested with a sharp squeak of anguish; but 
 though Geoffrey and Miss Vesta both examined 
 it with searching scrutiny, no new crack was 
 visible. He offered to bandage the old crack, 
 warranting to make the ailing leg the strongest 
 of the four ; but, on the whole, it did not seem 
 necessary. 
 
 "If only Deacon Weight does not lean on 
 it!" said Miss Vesta. "Perhaps you could 
 manage to stand near it yourself, Doctor
 
 FESTIVITY 113 
 
 Geoffrey, if you should see the deacon ap 
 proaching it. He is apt, when engaged in 
 conversation, to rest both elbows on a table ; 
 it is a great strain on any furniture." 
 
 Geoffrey looked a little blank. " Were you 
 expecting me to join the party ? " he asked; " I 
 thought I should be rather in the way, 
 shouldn't I ? " He read his answer in the 
 piteous startled look of the little lady, and 
 hastened on before she could speak. " I didn't 
 suppose I was invited, Miss Vesta. Of course 
 I shall come, if I may, with the greatest pleas 
 ure." 
 
 "Dear Doctor Strong," said Miss Vesta, 
 with a happy sigh, " it would have been such 
 a sad blow if we must have dispensed with 
 your society." 
 
 It would indeed have been a tragic disap 
 pointment to both sisters if their lodger had 
 not appeared on the great occasion. As it 
 was, Miss Vesta was fluttered, and only re-
 
 114 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 stored to full composure when, at tea, Doctor 
 Strong begged to know the exact hour at 
 which the guests were expected, that he might 
 be ready on time. 
 
 The pride of the good ladies knew no 
 bounds when Doctor Strong entered the par 
 lour in faultless evening dress, with a tiny 
 blush-rose, from Miss Vesta's favourite tree, in 
 his buttonhole. Evening dress was becoming 
 to Geoffrey. The Ladies' Society fluttered at 
 sight of him, and primmed itself, and shook 
 out its skirts. 
 
 Geoffrey's face was radiant over his white 
 tie. He had planned a cosy evening in his 
 own room, with a new treatise on orthopaedics 
 that had just come; but no one would 
 have thought that he took delight in any 
 thing except Society meetings. He went 
 from group to group, as if he were the 
 son of the house, cheering the forlorn, light 
 ening the heavy, smoothing down the prickly,
 
 FESTIVITY 115 
 
 a medical Father OTlynn. But it was 
 the elderly and the middle-aged whom he 
 sought out; the matrons whose children 
 he had tended, the spinsters whose neu 
 ralgia he had relieved. The few younger 
 members of the Society bridled and simpered 
 in vain; the young doctor never looked their 
 way. 
 
 "Good evening, Mrs. Worrett; sorry I 
 missed you the other day; but Miss Blyth 
 prescribed for you, and she is as good a doctor 
 as I am, any day. How is the baby now ? quite 
 well ! Good ; Yes ; oh, yes, excellent. In 
 simple cases these mild carminatives are just 
 the thing. Keep his diet steady, though, 
 while the warm weather lasts. I saw him 
 with a doughnut the other day, and took it 
 away from him; knew he got it by accident, 
 of course. Yes, bread and milk, that kind of 
 thing. Fine little fellow, and we want him to 
 have the best chance there is.
 
 116 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 "Miss Wax, I ani glad to see you here. 
 Headache all gone, eh ? Hurrah ! I'd keep on 
 with those powders, though, if I were you, for 
 a week or two. You're looking fine, as the 
 Scotch say. Hope you won't want to see me 
 again for a long time, and it's very good and 
 unselfish of me to say that, for I haven't for 
 gotten the plum-cake you gave me. 
 
 " How do you do, Deacon ? glad to see you ! 
 yes, glorious weather." Here Geoffrey moved 
 easily between Deacon Weight and the three- 
 cornered table, which the deacon was ap 
 proaching. "Suppose we stand here in the 
 corner a moment! Men are always rather in 
 the way, don't you think, at things of this 
 kind ? Mrs. Weight here to-night ? ah ! yes, 
 I see her. How well she's looking ! Not been 
 well yourself, Deacon? I'm sorry to hear 
 that. What's the dyspepsia again? that's 
 bad. Have you tried the light diet I recom 
 mended ? Well, I would, if I were in your place.
 
 FESTIVITY 117 
 
 I'd knock off two or three pounds of your 
 usual diet, and get a bicycle yes, you could. 
 A cousin of mine in New York weighed three 
 hundred pounds before he got his bicycle ; had 
 one made to order, of course, special weight; 
 now he weighs a hundred and seventy-five, 
 and is as active as a cat. Great thing! ah, 
 excuse me, Deacon ! " 
 
 He crossed the room, and bowed low before 
 a lady with white hair and an amazing cap, 
 who had been gazing at him with twinkling 
 eyes. This was Mrs. Tree, the Misses Blyths' 
 aunt. 
 
 " Mrs. Tree, how do you do ? why were you 
 looking at me in that way ? I've been trying 
 to speak to you all the evening, but you have 
 been surrounded. I think it's a shame for a 
 women over twenty-five" (Mrs. Tree was 
 ninety, and immensely proud of her age) " to 
 monopolise all the attention. What do you 
 think ? "
 
 118 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " I think you're a sassy boy ! " replied Mrs. 
 Tree, with vivacity. " I think children should 
 speak when they're spoken to; that's what I 
 think" 
 
 She clicked some castanets in her throat, 
 which was her way of laughing. 
 
 " But you didn't speak to me," said Geoffrey. 
 " You wouldn't speak. Do you suppose I was 
 going to wait all the evening ? What a won 
 derful cap you've got, Mrs. Tree! I'm going 
 to have one made exactly like it. Will you 
 go in to supper with me ? Do ! I want to cut 
 out the minister, and he is coming to ask you 
 now. I am much more amusing than he is, 
 you know I am." 
 
 Mrs. Tree did know it. The minister was 
 waved off, and the oldest parishioner sailed 
 in to supper on Doctor Strong's arm. 
 
 "Why don't you get married," she asked 
 on the way, "instead of fooling around old 
 folks this way? If I was your ma'am, I'd
 
 FESTIVITY 119 
 
 find a wife for ye, first thing I did. You're 
 too sassy to stay unmarried." 
 
 " Miss Vesta won't have me," said Geoffrey ; 
 " and I won't have anybody else, unless you 
 will relent, Mrs. Tree. Now, what do you 
 want? lobster salad? Well, I shall not give 
 you that. If you eat it you will be ill to 
 morrow, and then Direxia will send for me, 
 and you will throw my medicine out of the 
 window and get well without it, and then 
 laugh in my face. I know you! have some 
 escalloped oysters, there's a dear ! " 
 
 "I wish't I'd come in with the minister 
 now ! " said Mrs. Tree. 
 
 " I don't believe a word of it ! " said Geoffrey. 
 " It's much less dangerous for you to flirt with 
 me, you know it is; though even now Miss 
 Phoabe is looking at us very seriously, Mrs. 
 Tree, very seriously indeed." 
 
 "If I was Phoebe, I'd send you to bed!" 
 said Mrs. Tree. " That's what I'd do ! "
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 REVELATION 
 
 IT was a perfect evening. The water lay 
 like rosy glass under the sinking sun. Not a 
 breath of air was stirring, and even on the 
 beach the ripple did not break, merely whis 
 pered itself away in foam. The canoe moved 
 easily, when it did move, under a practised 
 stroke, but much of the time it lay at ease, 
 rocking a little now and then as a swell rose 
 and melted under it. Vesta lay among her 
 pillows at one end, and Geoffrey faced her. 
 Her face was turned toward the west, and he 
 wondered whether it was only the sunset glow 
 that touched it, or whether the faint rosy flush 
 belonged there. Certainly the waxen hue was 
 120
 
 REVELATION 121 
 
 gone; certainly the girl was wonderfully bet 
 ter. But he did not look at her much, because 
 it got into his breathing somehow. He had 
 not been paddling for a year, and he was 
 " soft," of course ; nothing surprising in that. 
 
 He was telling her about some of his 
 patients. The thing that did surprise him 
 was the interest she seemed to take; active, 
 intelligent interest. Being sick herself, per 
 haps, gave her a natural sympathy; and she 
 certainly had extraordinary intelligence, even 
 insight. Singular thing for a girl to have ! 
 
 " But what became of the poor little fellow ? 
 did he live ? better not, I am sure. I hope he 
 did not." 
 
 " Yes ; almost a pity, but he did live. Got 
 well, too, after a fashion, but he'll never be 
 able to do anything." 
 
 The girl was silent. Presently "I wonder 
 whether it is worth while to get well after a 
 fashion!" she said. "I wonder if it's worth
 
 122 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 while to go on living and never be able to do 
 anything, I suppose I shall find out." 
 
 " You ! " said the young doctor. " You will 
 be entirely well in a year, Miss Blyth ; I'd be 
 willing to wager it." 
 
 Vesta shook her head. 
 
 " No ! " she said. " The spring is broken. 
 There is nothing real the matter with me, I 
 know that well enough. It's nothing but 
 nerves and heart, and mind; nothing but 
 the whole of my life broken and thrown 
 aside." 
 
 She spoke bitterly, and Geoffrey felt a pang 
 of compassion. She was so young, and so 
 pretty beautiful was the word, rather. It 
 seemed too cruel If only she would not say 
 anything more about it ! How could she ? was 
 it because he was a physician ? He would go 
 and be a costermonger if that 
 
 " You see," she went on, slowly ; " I cared so 
 tremendously. I had thought of nothing else
 
 REVELATION 123 
 
 for years, dreamed of nothing else. All there 
 was of me went into it. And then, then 
 when this came; when he told me I it 
 was pretty hard." 
 
 The quiver in her voice was controlled in 
 stantly, but it was almost worse than the sobs. 
 Geoffrey broke out, fiercely : 
 
 " I don't know whether this man is more a 
 beast or a devil ; but I know that he is not fit 
 to live, and I wish I " 
 
 Vesta looked up at him in surprise. His 
 face was crimson; his angry eyes looked be 
 yond her, above her, anywhere except at 
 her. 
 
 "I don't know what you mean!" she said. 
 "He was neither. He was kind, oh, very 
 kind. He did it as tenderly as possible. I 
 shall always be grateful " the quiver came 
 again, and she stopped. 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Geoffrey. He drove his pad 
 dle savagely into the water, and the canoe
 
 124 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 leaped forward. What were women made of ? 
 why, why must he be subjected to this ? 
 
 The silence that followed was almost worse 
 than the speech. Finally he stole a glance at 
 his companion, and saw her face still faintly 
 rosy it must be mostly the light and set 
 in a sadness that had no touch of resentment 
 in it. 
 
 "Perhaps you don't like my talking about 
 it," she said, after awhile. 
 
 Geoffrey uttered an inarticulate murmur, 
 but found no words. 
 
 " The aunties don't. Aunt Phoebe gets angry, 
 and Aunt Vesta tearful and embarrassed. But 
 well, I could not stay at home. Every 
 thing there reminded me I thought if I 
 came here, where no such ideas ever entered, 
 I might begin not to forget, but to resign 
 myself a little, after a time. But I found 
 you here. No, let me speak ! " She raised 
 her hand, as Geoffrey tried to interrupt.
 
 REVELATION 125 
 
 "I have to make you understand if I 
 can why I was rude and odious and un 
 grateful when I first came, for I was all those 
 things, and I am not naturally so, I truly don't 
 think I am. But, don't you see? to come 
 right upon some one who was having all that 
 I had lost, enjoying all I had hoped to enjoy, 
 and caring well, perhaps as much as I 
 cared, but still in a different way, a man's 
 way, taking it all as a matter of course, where 
 I would have taken it on my knees " 
 
 " You must let me speak now, Miss Blyth," 
 said Geoffrey Strong. He spoke loud and 
 quickly, to drown the noise in his ears. 
 
 " I cannot let you go on under such a 
 total misapprehension. I could not in a life 
 time say how sorry I am for your cruel trouble. 
 It makes me rage; I'd like to never mind 
 that now ! but you are wholly mistaken in 
 thinking that anything of the kind has ever 
 come into my own life. I don't know how
 
 126 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 you received the impression, but you must 
 believe me when I say I have never had any 
 any such affair, nor the shadow of one. It 
 isn't my line. I not only never have had, but 
 probably never shall have " he was hurrying 
 out word upon word, hoping to get it over and 
 done with once and for ever. But letting his 
 eyes drop for an instant to the girl's face, he saw 
 on it a look of such unutterable amazement 
 that he stopped short in his headlong speech. 
 
 They gazed at each other from alien worlds. 
 At length " Doctor Strong," said Vesta, and 
 the words dropped slowly, one by one, " what 
 do you mean ? " 
 
 Geoffrey was silent. If she did not know 
 what he meant, he certainly did not. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " she repeated. " I 
 do not understand one word of what you are 
 saying." 
 
 Geoffrey tried hard to keep his temper. 
 "You were speaking of your disappoint-
 
 REVELATION 127 
 
 ment," he said, stiffly. " You seemed to take 
 it for granted that I was engaged in some 
 affair of a similar nature, and I felt bound 
 to undeceive you. I have never been what is 
 called in love in my life." 
 
 The bewilderment lingered in Vesta's eyes 
 for an instant; then a light came into them. 
 The sunset rushed in one crimson wave over 
 face and neck and brow; she fell back on her 
 pillows, quivering from head to foot. Was she 
 going to cry again ? 
 
 She was laughing! silently at first, trying 
 hard to control herself ; but now the laughter 
 broke forth in spite of her, and peal after peal 
 rang out, wild and sweet, helpless in its inten 
 sity. 
 
 Geoffrey sat paralysed a moment ; then the 
 professional instinct awoke. "Hysteria! an 
 other manifestation, that is all. I must stop 
 it." 
 
 He leaned forward.
 
 128 GEOFFREY STBONG 
 
 " Miss Blyth ! " 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! " laughed the girl. " Oh, dear, 
 oh, dear ! what shall I do? ha, ha, ha, ha ! oh, 
 what shall I do ? " 
 
 " Stop ! " said Geoffrey Strong. "Do you 
 hear me ? stop ! " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I hear you but it is so funny ! 
 oh, it is so funny ! ha, ha, ha ! what shall I 
 do?" 
 
 "What shall /do?" said Geoffrey to him 
 self. " She'll have the canoe over in another 
 minute." He crept toward the girl, and seized 
 her wrists in a firm grip. 
 
 "Be still!" he said. "I shall hold you 
 until you are quiet. Be still ! no more ! 
 be still!" 
 
 " You hurt me !" whispered the girl. The 
 wild laughter had died away, but she was still 
 shaking, and the tears were running down her 
 cheeks. 
 
 "I mean to hurt you. I shall hurt you
 
 REVELATION 129 
 
 more, if you are not quiet. As soon as you 
 are quiet I will let you go. Be still still 
 there ! " 
 
 He loosed her hands, and took up the paddle 
 again. This kind of thing was very exhaust 
 ing; he was quivering himself, quite percep 
 tibly. Now why ? nerves of sympathy ? 
 
 He paddled on in silence; the sun went 
 down, and the afterglow spread and bright 
 ened along the sky. He hardly thought 
 of his companion, his whole mind bent on 
 suppressing the turmoil that was going on in 
 himself. 
 
 He started at the sound of her voice; it 
 was faint, but perfectly controlled. 
 
 " Doctor Strong ! " 
 
 "MissBlyth!" 
 
 " You thought I had had a disappoint 
 ment in love ? " 
 
 "I did!" 
 
 "You are mistaken. You misunderstood
 
 130 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 my aunt, or me, or both. I have never, any 
 more than you " 
 
 Her voice grew stronger, and she sat up 
 right. 
 
 " It was so very funny no, I am not going 
 off again but I think there was some excuse 
 for me this time. You certainly are having 
 every opportunity of studying my case, Doctor 
 Strong. The truth is oh, I supposed it had 
 been made clear to you ; how could I suppose 
 anything else? It was my career, my life, 
 that I had to give up, not not a man. You 
 say you have never been what is called in love ; 
 Doctor Strong, no more have 1 1 " 
 
 There was silence, and now it was in Geof 
 frey's face that the tide rose. Such a burning 
 tide it was, he fancied he heard the blood hiss 
 as it curled round the roots of his hair. He 
 noted this as curious, and remembered that in 
 hanging or drowning it was the trifles that 
 stamped themselves upon the mind. Also, it
 
 REVELATION 131 
 
 appeared that lie was hollow, with nothing 
 but emptiness where should have been his 
 vital parts. 
 
 " Shall I say anything ? " he asked, presently. 
 " There isn't anything to say, is there, except 
 to beg your pardon ? would you like to hear 
 that I am a fool ? but you know that already. 
 Your aunt things were said that were curi 
 ously misleading not that that is any ex 
 cuse Do you want me to go into detail, 
 or may I drown myself quietly ? " 
 
 " Oh ! don't," said Vesta, smiling. " I could 
 not possibly paddle myself home, and I should 
 infallibly upset the canoe in trying to rescue 
 you." 
 
 " You would not try ! " said Geoffrey, gloom 
 ily. " It would not be human if you tried." 
 
 "It would be professional," said Vesta. 
 "Come, Doctor Strong, you see I can laugh 
 about it, and you must laugh, too. Let us 
 shake hands, and agree to forget all about it."
 
 132 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 Geoffrey shook hands, and said she was 
 very magnanimous ; but he still felt hollow. 
 The only further remark that his seething 
 brain presented was a scrap of ancient dog 
 gerel : 
 
 " I wish. I was dead, 
 Or down at Owl's Head, 
 Or anywhere else but here I " 
 
 This was manifestly inappropriate, so he 
 kept silence, and paddled on doggedly. 
 
 "And aren't you going to ask what my 
 disappointment really was?" inquired Vesta, 
 presently. " But perhaps you have guessed ? " 
 
 No, Geoffrey had not guessed. 
 
 " Don't you want to know ? I should really 
 it would be a comfort to me to talk it over 
 with you, if you don't mind." 
 
 Geoffrey would be delighted to hear any 
 thing that she chose to tell him. 
 
 "Yes, you seem delighted. Well you 
 gee, you have not understood, not understood
 
 REVELATION 133 
 
 in the very least ; and now in a moment you 
 are going to know all about it." She paused 
 for a moment, and there was an appeal in her 
 clear, direct gaze ; but Geoffrey did not want 
 to be appealed to. 
 
 " I was at Johns Hopkins," said Yesta. " It 
 was the beginning of my second year ; I broke 
 down, and had to give it up. I was studying 
 medicine myself, Doctor Strong." 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Geoffrey Strong. 
 
 The exclamation was a singular one ; a long 
 cry of amazement and reprobation. Every 
 fibre of the man stiffened, and he sat rigid, a 
 statue of Disapproval 
 
 " I beg your pardon ! " he said, after a mo 
 ment. " I said it before, but I don't know that 
 there is anything else to say. No doubt I 
 was very stupid, yet I hardly know how I 
 could have supposed just this to be the 
 truth. I -no! I beg your pardon. That 
 is all"
 
 134 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 The girl looked keenly at him. "You are 
 not sorry for me any more, are you ? " she 
 said. 
 
 Geoffrey was silent. 
 
 " You were sorry, very sorry ! " she went on. 
 "So long as you thought I had lost that 
 precious possession, a lover; had lost the di 
 vine privilege of what is the kind of thing 
 they say ? merging my life in another's, be 
 coming the meek and gentle helpmeet of my 
 God-given lord and master you were very 
 sorry. I could not make it out; it was so 
 unlike what I expected from you. It was 
 so human, so kind, so yes, so womanlike. 
 But fhi moment you find it is not a man, but 
 only the aspiration of a lifetime, the same 
 aspiration that in you is right and fitting and 
 beautiful you you sit there like a 
 lamp-post and disapprove of me." 
 
 " I am sorry ! " said Geoffrey. He was try 
 ing hard to be reasonable, and said to himself
 
 EEVELATION 135 
 
 that he would not be irritated, come what 
 might. "I cannot approve of women study 
 ing medicine, but I am sorry for you, Miss 
 Blyth." 
 
 Her face, which had been bitter enough in 
 its set and scornful beauty, suddenly melted 
 into a bewildering softness of light and laugh 
 ter. She leaned forward. " But it was funny ! " 
 she said. "It was very, very funny, Doctor 
 Strong, you must admit that. You were so 
 compassionate, so kind, thinking me " 
 
 " Do you think perhaps but never mind ! 
 you certainly have the right to say whatever 
 you choose," said Geoffrey, holding himself 
 carefully. 
 
 "And all the time," she went on, "I utterly 
 unconscious, and only fretting because I could 
 not have my own life, my own will, my own 
 way!" 
 
 " By Jove ! " said Geoffrey, starting. " That 
 that's what I say myself ! "
 
 136 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 "Beally!" said Vesta, dryly. "You see I 
 also am human, after all" 
 
 " Do you see little Vesta anywhere, sister ? " 
 asked Miss Phoebe Blyth. 
 
 Miss Vesta had just lighted her lamp, and 
 was standing with folded hands, in her usual 
 peaceful attitude of content, gazing out upon 
 the sunset sea. A black line lay out there 
 on the rosy gold of the water ; she had been 
 watching it, watching the rhythmic flash 
 of the paddle, and thinking happy, gentle 
 thoughts, such as old ladies of tender heart 
 often think. Miss Phoebe had no part in 
 these thoughts, and Miss Vesta looked hur 
 riedly round at the sound of her crisp utter 
 ance. Her breath fluttered a little, but she 
 did not speak. Miss Phoebe came up behind 
 her and peered out of the window. " I don't 
 see where the child can be," she said, rather 
 querulously. "I thought she was in the gar-
 
 EEVELATION 137 
 
 den, but I don't do you see her anywhere, 
 Vesta ? " 
 
 Miss Vesta had never read the "Pickwick 
 Papers ; " she considered Dickens vulgar ; but 
 her conduct at this moment resembled that of 
 Samuel Weller on a certain noted occasion. 
 Eaising her eyes to the twilight sky, Miss 
 Vesta said, gently, "No, Sister Phoebe, I do 
 not!"
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 SIDE LIGHTS 
 
 ELMERTON, June 20, 1900. 
 
 " DEAR JIM : It is rather curious that you 
 should have written me this particular letter at this 
 particular time. < Give me a man's coincidences 
 and I'll give you his life ! ' Who is it says that ? 
 
 " You want my opinion about women's studying 
 medicine ; you personally have reason to think that 
 the career of medicine is not incompatible with true 
 womanliness, exquisite refinement, perfect grace and 
 breeding. I really cannot copy your whole letter. The 
 symptoms are, alas, only too familiar I You have met 
 your Fate again (and those foolish old Greeks used 
 to believe there were only three of 'em !) and she 
 is a doctor, or is going to be one. Well it's curious, 
 as I said, for it happens that I have been thinking 
 more or less about the same matter. I used to feel 
 very strongly about it hang it, I still feel very 
 138
 
 SIDE LIGHTS 139 
 
 strongly about it ! A girl doesn't know what she is 
 doing when she goes into medicine. I grant that 
 she does it, in many cases, from the highest possible 
 motives. I grant that she is far ahead of most men 
 in her ideas of the profession, and what it means, or 
 ought to mean. But, all the same, she doesn't know 
 what she is going in for, and I cannot conceive of a 
 man's letting any woman he cares for go on with 
 it. She must lose something ; she must, I tell you ; 
 she cannot help it. And even if it isn't the essen 
 tial things, still it changes her. She is less woman, 
 less whatever you choose to call it. A coarser 
 touch has come upon her, and she is changed. Well, 
 I say I believe all this, and I do, with all my soul ; 
 and yet, as you say, it's cruel hard for a young crea 
 ture, all keyed up to a pitch of enthusiasm and 
 devotion and noble aspiration, to be checked like a 
 boy's kite, and brought down to the ground and told 
 to mind her seam. It's cruel hard, I can see that ; 
 I can feel and sympathise intensely with all that 
 part of it, and honour the purpose and the spirit, 
 even though I cannot approve of the direction. 
 
 " Oh, glancing at your letter again, I see that in 
 your friend's case everything seems to be going on 
 smoothly. Well, the principle remains the same. I 
 suppose I seem to have drifted away from your
 
 140 GEOFFEEY STRONG 
 
 question, somehow I suppose one woman in ten 
 thousand may make a good physician. I suppose 
 that this ten -thousandth woman a woman who is 
 all that you say may be justified, perhaps, in 
 becoming a physician ; whether a woman physician 
 can remain all that you say ah ! that is the ques 
 tion 1 Man alive, am I Phoebus Apollo, that I should 
 know the answers to all the questions ? I wish I 
 could find the way to Delphi myself. 
 
 " But don't get the idea that you bore me with 
 your confidences, old man. Did I say so? on the 
 contrary, tell me all you can; it interests me ex 
 tremely. I am thinking about these matters path 
 ologically a good deal. A physician has to, of 
 course. Tell me how you feel, how it takes you. 
 Do you find it gets into your breathing sometimes, 
 like rarefied air ? Curious sensation, rarefied air 
 I remember it on Mont Blanc. 
 
 " What am I doing? Man, I am practising medi 
 cine ! Cases at present, one typhoid, two tonsilitis, 
 five measles, eight dyspepsia, six rheumatism, et id 
 gen. om,, one cantankerousness (she calls it depres 
 sion), one gluttony, one nerves. Pretty busy, but 
 my wheel keeps me in good trim. I have been 
 paddling more or less, too, to keep chest and arms, 
 up with the rest of the procession.
 
 SIDE LIGHTS 141 
 
 " The old ladies are as dear as ever ; if I am not 
 wholly spoilt, it will not be their fault, bless their 
 kind hearts I The niece is better, I think. 
 
 " Good-bye, old man 1 write again soon, and tell 
 me more about Amaryllis. How pretty the classical 
 names are : Chloe, Lalage, Diana, Vesta. I was 
 brought up on Fannies and Minnies and Lotties, 
 with Eliza for a change. Horrible name, Eliza ! 
 
 " GEOFF." 
 
 The young doctor had just posted the above 
 letter, and was sauntering along the street on 
 his way home. It lacked an hour of tea- 
 time, and he was wondering which of several 
 things he should do. There was hardly time 
 for a paddle; besides, Vesta Blyth had gone 
 for a drive with the minister's daughter. 
 Geoffrey did not think driving half as good 
 for her as being on the water. He must con 
 trive to get through his afternoon calls earlier 
 to-morrow. He might stop and see how 
 Tommy Candy was, no ! there was Tommy, 
 sitting by the roadside, pouring sand over his
 
 142 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 head from a tin cup. He was all right, then ; 
 the young doctor thought he would be if they 
 stopped dosing him, and fed him like a Chris 
 tian for a day or two. Well, there was no 
 one else who could not wait till morning. 
 Why should he not go and call on Mrs. Tree ? 
 here he was at the house. It was the hour 
 when in cities the sophisticated clustered 
 about five o'clock tea-tables, and tested the 
 comfort of various chairs, and indulged in talk 
 as thin as the china and bread and butter. 
 Five o'clock tea was unknown in Elmerton, 
 but Mrs. Tree would be glad to see him, and 
 he always enjoyed a crack with her. 
 
 He turned in at the neat gate. The house 
 stood well back from the street, in the trim 
 mest and primmest little garden that ever was 
 seen. Most of the shrubs were as old as their 
 owner, and had something of her wrinkled 
 sprightliness ; and the annuals felt their re 
 sponsibilities, and tried to live up to the
 
 SIDE LIGHTS 143 
 
 York and Lancaster rose and the strawberry 
 bush. 
 
 The door was opened by a Brownie, dis 
 guised in a cap and apron. This was Direxia 
 Hawkes, aunt to Diploma Grotty. In his 
 mind Geoffrey had christened the little house 
 the Aunt's Nest, but he never dared to tell 
 anybody this. 
 
 "Well, Direxia, how is Mrs. Tree to-day? 
 would she like to see me, do you think ? " 
 
 " She ain't no need to see you!" 
 
 The young doctor looked grieved, and 
 turned away. 
 
 "But I expect she'd be pleased to. Step 
 in!" 
 
 This was Direxia's one joke, and she never 
 tired of it ; no more did Geoffrey. He entered 
 the cool dim parlour, which smelt of red cedar ; 
 the walls were panelled with it. The floor 
 was of polished oak, dark with age; the 
 chairs and tables were of rare foreign woods,
 
 144 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 satin and leopard wood, violet- wood and ebony. 
 The late Captain Tree had been a man of 
 fancy, and, sailing on many seas, never forgot 
 his name, but bought precious woods wherever 
 he found them. 
 
 "Here's the doctor!" said Direxia. "I ex 
 pect he'll keep right on coming till he finds 
 you sick." 
 
 "That's what he will do!" said Geoffrey. 
 "No chance for me to-day, though, I see. 
 How do you do, Mrs. Tree? I think it is 
 hardly respectable for you to look so well. 
 Can't you give me one little symptom? not 
 a tiny crick in your back ? you ought to have 
 one, sitting in that chair." 
 
 Mrs. Tree was sitting bolt upright in an 
 ancient straight-backed chair of curious work 
 manship. It was too 'high for her, so her 
 little feet, of which she was inordinately vain, 
 rested on a hassock of crimson tapestry. She 
 wore white silk stockings, and slippers of cin-
 
 SIDE LIGHTS 145 
 
 namon-coloured satin to match her gown. A 
 ruffled black silk apron, a net kerchief pinned 
 with a quaint diamond brooch, and a cap sug 
 gesting the Corinthian Order, completed her 
 costume. Her face was netted close with fine 
 wrinkles, but there was no sign of age in her 
 bright dark eyes. 
 
 "Never you trouble yourself about my 
 cheer ! " said the old lady with some sever 
 ity. "Sit down in one yourself there are 
 plenty of lolloping ones if your back's weak 
 and tell me what mischief you have been up 
 to lately. I wouldn't trust you round the 
 corner." 
 
 " You'll break my heart some day," said 
 Geoffrey, with a heavy sigh ; " and then you 
 will be sorry, Mrs. Tree. Mischief? Let me 
 see ! I set Jim Arthur's collar-bone this morn 
 ing; do you care about Jim Arthur? he fell 
 off his bicycle against a stone wall." 
 
 " Serve him right, too ! " said Mrs. Tree.
 
 146 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " Hiding that nasty thing, running folks down 
 and scaring their horses. I'd put 'em all in 
 the bonfire-pile if I was Town Council. Your 
 turn will come some day, young man, for all 
 you go spinning along like a spool of cotton. 
 How's the girls?" 
 
 She rang the bell, and Direxia appeared. 
 
 " Bring the cake and sherry ! " she said. 
 " It's a shame to spoil boys, but when they're 
 spoilt already, there's less harm done. How's 
 the girls?" 
 
 Geoffrey reported a clean bill of health, 
 so far as Miss Phoebe and Miss Vesta were 
 concerned. "I really am proud of Miss 
 Phosbe!" he said. "She says she feels ten 
 years younger than she did three months ago, 
 and I think it's true." 
 
 "Phoebe has no call to feel ten years 
 younger!" said Mrs. Tree, shortly. "She's 
 a very . suitable age as it is. I don't like 
 to see a cat play kitten, any more than
 
 SIDE LIGHTS 147 
 
 I like to see a kitten play cat. How's the 
 child?" 
 
 "I should like to see Miss Phoebe playing 
 kitten ! " said Geoffrey, his eyes dancing. " It 
 would be something to remember. What 
 child, Mrs. Tree ? " 
 
 " The little girl ; little Vesta. Is she com 
 ing out of her tantrums, think ? " 
 
 "She is a great deal better, certainly," 
 said Geoffrey. " I hope I feel sure that she 
 will recover entirely in time. But you must 
 not call her trouble tantrums, Mrs. Tree, really. 
 Neurasthenia is a recognised form of " 
 
 " You must have looked quite pretty when 
 you was short-coated!" said the old lady, 
 irrelevantly. " Have some wine ? the cake is 
 too rich for you, but you may have just a 
 crumb." 
 
 " You must have been the wickedest thing 
 alive when you were eighteen ! " said Geoffrey, 
 pouring out the amber sherry into a wonder-
 
 148 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 ful gilt glass. " I wish Direxia would stay in 
 the room and matronise me ; I'm afraid, I tell 
 you." 
 
 "If Direxia had nothing better to do, I'd 
 send her packing," said Mrs. Tree. " Here ! " 
 
 They touched glasses solemnly. 
 
 " Wishing you luck in a wife ' " said the old 
 lady. 
 
 " Good gracious ! " cried Geoffrey. 
 
 " It's what you need, young man, and you'd 
 better be looking out for one. There must be 
 some one would have you, and any wife is 
 better than none." 
 
 She looked up, though not at Geoffrey, and 
 a twinkle came into her eyes. " Do you call 
 little Vesta pretty, now ? " she asked. 
 
 "Not pretty," said Geoffrey; "that is not 
 the word. I " 
 
 "Then you'd better not call her anything," 
 said Mrs. Tree, "for -she's in the door behind 
 ye."
 
 SIDE LIGHTS 149 
 
 Geoffrey started violently, and turned around. 
 Vesta was standing framed in the dark door 
 way. The clear whiteness of her beauty had 
 never seemed more wonderful. The faint rose 
 in her cheeks only made the white more radi 
 ant; her eyes were no longer agate-like, but 
 soft and full of light ; only her smile remained 
 the same, shadowy, elusive, a smile in a dream. 
 
 When the young doctor remembered his 
 manners and rose to his feet after all, it 
 was only a moment or two he saw that 
 Miss Vesta was standing behind her niece, a 
 little gray figure melting into the gloom of the 
 twilight hall. The two now entered the room 
 together. 
 
 "Aunt Vesta wanted you to see my new 
 hat, Aunt Tree," said the girl "Do you 
 like it?" 
 
 "Yes!" said Miss Vesta, coming forward 
 timidly, "Good evening, Aunt Marcia. Oh, 
 good evening to you, Doctor Strong. The
 
 150 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 hat seemed to me so pretty, and you are 
 always so kindly interested, Aunt Marcia! I 
 ought to apologise to you, Doctor Strong, for 
 introducing such a subject." 
 
 " Vesta, don't twitter ! " said Mrs. Tree. " Is 
 there anything improper about the hat? It's 
 very well, child, very well. I always liked a 
 scoop myself, but folks don't know much now 
 adays. What do you think of it, young man ? " 
 
 Geoffrey thought it looked like a lunar halo, 
 but he did not say so ; he said something prim 
 and conventional about its being very pretty 
 and becoming. 
 
 " Are you going to sit down ? " asked Mrs. 
 Tree. "I can't abide to see folks standing 
 round as if they was hat-poles." 
 
 Miss Vesta slipped into a seat, but the 
 younger Vesta shook her head. 
 
 " I must go on ! " she said. " Aunt Phoabe 
 is expecting a letter, and I must tell her that 
 there is none."
 
 SIDE LIGHTS 151 
 
 " Yes, dear, yes ! " said Miss Vesta. " Your 
 Aunt Phoebe will be impatient, doubtless ; you 
 are right. And perhaps it will be best for me, 
 too " she half rose, but Mrs. Tree pulled her 
 down again without ceremony. 
 
 "You stay here, Vesta!" she commanded. 
 " I want to see you. But you " she turned 
 to Geoffrey, who had remained standing 
 "can go along with the child, if you're a 
 mind to. You'll get nothing more out of 
 me, I tell ye." 
 
 " I am going to send you a measles bacillus 
 to-morrow morning," said the young doctor. 
 "You must take it in your coffee, and then 
 you will want to see me every day. Good-bye, 
 Mrs. Tree ! some day you will be sorry for 
 your cruelty. Miss Vesta till tea-time ! " 
 
 Aunt and niece watched the young couple 
 in silence as they walked along the street. 
 Both walked well; it was a pleasure to see 
 them move. He was tall enough to justify
 
 152 GEOFFREY STEONG 
 
 the little courteous bend of the head, but not 
 enough to make her anxious about the top of 
 her hat if she ever had such anxieties. 
 
 " Well ! " said Mrs. Tree, suddenly. 
 
 Miss Vesta started. " Yes, dear Aunt Mar- 
 cia ! " she said. " Yes, certainly ; I am here." 
 
 " They make a pretty couple, don't they ? " 
 said the old lady. " If she would come out of 
 her tantrums, hey, Vesta ? K 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Marcia ! " said Miss Vesta, softly. 
 She blushed very pink, and looked round the 
 room with a furtive, frightened glance. 
 
 "No, there's no one behind the sofa," said 
 Mrs. Tree ; " and there's no one under the big 
 chair, and Phoabe is safe at home with her 
 knitting, and the best place for her." (Mrs. 
 Tree did not " get on " with her niece Phoebe.) 
 "There's no use in looking like a scared 
 pigeon, Vesta Blyth. I say they make a 
 pretty couple, and I say they would make 
 a pretty couple coming out of church to-
 
 SIDE LIGHTS 153 
 
 gether. I'd give her my Mechlin flounces; 
 you'll never want 'em." 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Marcia ! " said dear Miss Vesta, 
 clasping her soft hands. " If it might be the 
 Lord's will " 
 
 " The Lord likes to be helped along once in 
 a while ! " said Mrs. Tree. " Don't tell me ! I 
 wasn't born yesterday." And this statement 
 was not to be controverted.
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 OVER THE WAY 
 
 " DEACON," said Mrs. Weight, " Mis' Tree is 
 sick!" 
 
 " Now, reelly ! " said the deacon. " Is that 
 so?" 
 
 " It is so. She sent for Doctor Strong this 
 morning. I saw Direxia go out, and she was 
 gone just the len'th of time to go to the girls' 
 and back. Pretty soon he came, riding like 
 mad on that wheel thing of his. He stayed 
 'most an hour, and came out with a face a 
 yard long. I expect it's her last sickness, 
 don't you ? " 
 
 " Mebbe so ! " said the deacon, dubiously. 
 " Mis' Tree has had a long life ; she'd oughter 
 
 154
 
 OVER THE WAT 155 
 
 be prepared; I trust she is. She has always 
 loved the world's things, but I trust she is. 
 Ain't this ruther a slim dinner, Viny ? I was 
 looking for a boiled dinner to-day, kind of." 
 
 "Fried apples and pork was good enough 
 for my father," replied his wife, " and I guess 
 they'll do for you, Ephraim Weight. Doctor 
 Strong says you eat too nmch every day of 
 your life, and that's why you run to flesh so. 
 Not that I think much of what he says. I 
 asked him how he accounted for me being so 
 fleshy, and not the value of a great spoonful 
 passing my lips some days; he made answer 
 he couldn't say. I think less of that young 
 man's knowledge every time I see him. Tears 
 to me if I was the Blyth girls, I should be 
 real unwilling to have my aunt pass away 
 with no better care than she's likely to get 
 from him. Billy, where's your push-piece? 
 I don't want to see you push with your fingers 
 again. It's real vulgar."
 
 156 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " I've eat it ! " said Billy. " Mother, there's 
 the young lad)' from Miss Blythses going in 
 to Mis' Tree's." 
 
 " I want to know so she is ! She's got a 
 bag with her. She's going to stay. Well, I 
 expect that settles it. I should think Phoebe 
 and Vesta would feel kind o' bad, being passed 
 over in that way, but it's pleasant to have 
 young folks about a dying bed Annie Lizzie, 
 I'll slap you if you don't stop kicking under 
 the table and Nathaniel was always his 
 aunt's favourite. Most likely she's left her 
 property to him, or to this girl I expect it'll 
 be a handsome provision. Mis' Tree has lived 
 handsome and close all her days. As you 
 say, deacon, I hope she's prepared, but I 
 never see any signs of active piety in her 
 myself." 
 
 There was a pause, while all the family 
 except Annie Lizzie, who profited by the inter 
 lude to take two doughnuts beyond her usual
 
 OVER THE WAT 157 
 
 allowance gazed eagerly at the house oppo 
 site. 
 
 " She's questioning Direxia. Direxia's shak 
 ing her head. Mebbe it's all over by now ; I 
 expect it is. I declare, there's a kind of solemn 
 look comes over a house you can't name it, 
 but it's there. Deacon, I think you'd ought 
 to step over. Elder Haskell is away, you 
 know, and you senior deacon ; I do certainly 
 think you'd ought to step over and offer prayer/ 
 or do whatever's needful. They'll want you 
 to break it to the girls, like as not ; it's terrible 
 to have no man in a family. All them lone 
 women, and everything to see to; I declare, 
 my heart warms to 'em, if Phoebe is cranky. 
 Ain't you going, Deacon ? " 
 
 The deacon hesitated. "I ain't sure that 
 I'd better, Viny ! " he said. " I feel no assur 
 ance that Mis' Tree has passed away, and she 
 is not one that welcomes inquiry as a rule. 
 I've no objection to asking at the door "
 
 158 GEOFFREY STEONG 
 
 " Now, Deacon, if that isn't you all over ! 
 you are always so afraid of putting yourself 
 forward. Where would you have been this 
 day, I should like to know, if it hadn't been 
 for me shoving behind? I tell you, when 
 folks comes to their last end they suffer a 
 great change. If you let that woman die 
 though it's my firm belief she's dead a'ready 
 without at least trying to bring her 
 state before her, you'll have to answer for 
 it ; I won't be responsible. Here's your hat ; 
 now you go right over. There's no know- 
 ing " 
 
 "There's Doctor Strong going in now!" 
 pleaded the deacon. " Most likely he will see 
 to " 
 
 " Ephraim Weight ! look me in the eye ! 
 We've lived opposite neighbours to Mis' Tree 
 twenty years, and do you think I'm going to 
 have it said that when her time came to die 
 we stood back and let strangers, and next door
 
 OVER THE WAY 159 
 
 to heathen, do for her ? If you don't go over. 
 I shall. Mebbe I'd better go, anyway. Wait 
 till I get my bunnit " 
 
 It ended in the deacon's going alone. 
 Slowly and unwillingly he plodded across the 
 street, and shuffled up the walk ; timidly and 
 half-heartedly he lifted the shining knocker 
 and let it fall. Direxia Hawkes opened the 
 door, and he passed in. 
 
 "Well?" said Mrs. Weight. 
 
 The deacon had not made a long stay at 
 the opposite house. Eeturning faster than he 
 came, his large white cheeks were slightly 
 flushed; his pale blue eyes wore a startled 
 look. He suffered his wife to take his hat 
 and stick from him, and opened his mouth 
 once or twice, but said nothing. 
 
 " Well ? " said Mrs. Weight again. " Is she 
 dead, Deacon ? Ephraim, what has happened to 
 you ? have you lost the use of your speech ?
 
 160 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 Oh ! what will become of me, with these four 
 innocent " 
 
 " Woman, be still ! " said Ephraim Weight ; 
 and his wife was still, gaping in utter be 
 wilderment at this turning of her mammoth 
 but patient worm. 
 
 " Mrs. Tree is not dead ! " resumed the 
 deacon. "I don't see as she's any more 
 likely to die than I am. I don't see as 
 there's any living thing the matter with her 
 except the devil!" 
 
 At this second outburst Mrs. Weight col 
 lapsed, and sat down, her hands on her knees, 
 staring at her husband. The children whim 
 pered and crept behind her ample back. 
 " Pa " was transformed. 
 
 "I went to that house," Deacon Weight 
 went on, "against my judgment, Viny; you 
 know I did. I felt no call to go, quite the 
 reverse, but you were so 
 
 "I found Mis' Tree sitting up straight in
 
 OVEE THE WAY 161 
 
 her chair in the parlour. She had her night 
 cap on, and her feet in a footmuff, but that 
 was all the sign of sickness I could see. She 
 looked up at me as wicked as ever I saw her. 
 'Here's the deacon,' she says! 'he's heard 
 I'm sick Viny saw you come, doctor, 
 and he has come to pray over me. I'm 
 past praying for, Deacon. Have some orange 
 cordial ! ' 
 
 "There was glasses on the tray, and a 
 decanter of that cordial Direxia makes; it's 
 too strong for a temperance household. Doc 
 tor Strong and that young Blyth girl were 
 sitting on two stools, and they was all three 
 playing cards! I suppose I looked none too 
 well pleased, for Mis' Tree said, ' I can't have 
 you turning my cordial sour, Ephraim Weight. 
 Eemember when you stole oranges out of the 
 schooner, and Cap'n Tree horsed you up and 
 spanked you ? here's your health, Ephraim ! ' 
 
 " She she looked at me for a minute,
 
 162 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 sharp and quick I was seeking for some 
 word that might bring her to a sense of her 
 state, and what was fitting at her age and 
 then she begun to laugh. 'You thought I 
 was dead!' says she. 'You thought I was 
 dead, I see it in your face; and Viny sent 
 you to view the remains. You go home, and 
 tell her I'll bury ye both, and do it handsome. 
 Go 'long with ye ! scat ! ' 
 
 "That was the expression she used, to a 
 senior deacon of the congregation she sits 
 in. I believe Satan has a strong hold on 
 that old woman. I I think I will go to 
 my room, wife." 
 
 " Do you think there is really anything the 
 matter with Aunt Tree ? " asked Vesta. She 
 had followed the young doctor out into the 
 prim little garden, and was picking some late 
 roses as she spoke. 
 
 "I can't make out anything," said Geoffrey.
 
 OVEE THE WAT 163 
 
 * She says she has a pain, and tells me to find 
 out where it is, if I know anything ; and then 
 she laughs in my face, and refuses to answer 
 questions. I think Mr. Tree must have had 
 a lively time of it; she's perfectly delightful, 
 though. Her. pulse and temperature are all 
 right; she looks well; of course at that age 
 the slightest breath blows out the flame, but 
 I cannot make out that anything is actually 
 wrong. I suspect " 
 
 "What?" said Vesta. 
 
 " I suspect she simply wanted you to come 
 and stay with her, and made this an ex 
 cuse." 
 
 "But I would have come; there was no 
 need of any excuse. I would have come 
 in a minute if she had asked me ; I am 
 so very much stronger, and I love to stay 
 here." 
 
 " You won't stay long, though, will you ? it 
 can't be necessary, not in the least necessary.
 
 164 GEOFFREY STEONG 
 
 She is really perfectly well, and we your 
 aunts, that is the house will be too forlorn 
 without you." 
 
 Vesta laughed ; she had a delightful laugh. 
 
 " You have charming manners ! " she said. 
 " I can't help knowing that you will really be 
 glad to be rid of me, all but Aunt Vesta ; dear 
 Aunt Vesta!" 
 
 " You don't know ! " said Geoffrey. " It 
 won't be the same place without you." 
 
 " Yes, I do know ; Aunt Phrebe told me. 
 You said the three of you made the perfect 
 triangle, and you wouldn't let in the Czar of 
 Eussia or the Pope of Eome to spoil it." 
 
 " Oh ! but that was before that was when 
 things were entirely different ! " said Geoffrey. 
 "I to tell the truth, I think I was about 
 twelve years old when I first came to the 
 house. I am growing up a little, Miss Blyth, 
 I truly am. And you are not in the least 
 like the Czar or the Pope either, and I wish
 
 OVER THE WAY 165 
 
 you would come back. Mayn't I have a 
 rose, please?" 
 
 " Oh ! all you want, I am sure," said Vesta, 
 heartily. "But they are not really so pretty 
 as those at home." 
 
 " I thought perhaps you would give me one 
 of those in your hand," said Geoffrey, half- 
 timidly. "Thank you! I don't suppose " 
 
 He was about to suggest her pinning it on 
 his coat, but caught sight of Mrs. Weight at 
 the opposite window, and refrained. 
 
 "Do you know any Spanish?" he asked, 
 abruptly. 
 
 " Spanish ? no ! " said Vesta, .looking at him 
 wide-eyed. 
 
 " Not even names of flowers ? " 
 
 " No ! how should I ? Why do you ask ? " 
 
 " Oh nothing ! I was thinking of learn 
 ing it one of these days, but I don't believe I 
 shall. Come and walk a little way, won't 
 you ? you look tired. I can't you must not
 
 166 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 stay here if you are going to get tired, you 
 know. Old people are very exacting some 
 times." 
 
 " Oh, I shall not get tired. You can't think 
 how much better I am. No, I must go back 
 now, Doctor Strong. Aunt Tree might want 
 something." 
 
 " Physician's orders ! " said Geoffrey, peremp 
 torily. "Dose of one-half mile, to be taken 
 immediately. Won't you please come, Miss 
 Blyth ? I I want to tell you about a very 
 interesting case." 
 
 Mrs. Weight peered over the window-blind. 
 She was carrying a cup of tea to the deacon, 
 who was feeling poorly, but had paused at 
 sight of the young couple. "If that girl 
 thinks of making up to that young man," she 
 said, " she's got hold of the wrong cob, I can 
 tell her. Mira Pettis made him a napkin- 
 holder, worked 'Bonappety' on it in cross- 
 stitch on blue satin, and he give it to the girls'
 
 OVER THE WAY 167 
 
 cat for a collar. I see the cat with it on. I 
 don't want to see no clearer than that how 
 he treats young ladies. I wish't Doctor 
 Stedman was home."
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 BROKEN BONES 
 
 ANOTHER bicycle accident! This time it 
 was a head-on collision, two boys riding at 
 each other round a corner, as if for a wager. 
 The young doctor had patched them both up, 
 there being no broken bones, only a dislocated 
 shoulder and many bruises, and was now riding 
 home, reflecting upon the carelessness of the 
 human race in general, and of boys in particu 
 lar. Here was one of the great benefactions 
 of modern civilisation, a health-and-pleasure- 
 giving apparatus within the reach of all, and 
 often turned into an engine of destruction by 
 senseless stupidity, Mrs. Tree would burn all 
 bicycles if she could have her way; not that 
 
 168
 
 BROKEN BONES 169 
 
 Mrs. Tree was stupid, far from it ! Miss 
 Phoebe disapproved of them, Miss Vesta feared 
 them, and evidently expected his to blow up 
 from day to day. What would they all say 
 if they knew that he had been trying to per 
 suade Vesta to ride with him ? He called her 
 Vesta in his thoughts, merely to distinguish 
 her from her aunt. He was quite sure it 
 would be the best possible exercise for her, 
 now that she was so much stronger. So far, 
 she had met all his representations with her 
 gentle no ! not gentle ; Geoffrey would be 
 switched if she was gentle ; her quiet negative. 
 Her aunts would not like it, and there was an 
 end. Well, there wasn't an end ! A reason 
 able person ought to listen to reason, and be 
 convinced by it. Vesta did not appear to be 
 reasonable yet, but she was intelligent, and the 
 rest would come as she grew stronger. And 
 he had no right to say she was not gentle ; 
 she could be the gentlest creature that ever
 
 170 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 lived, when it was a question of a child, or 
 a bird, or anything that was hurt, in short. 
 When that little beggar fell down the other 
 day and barked his idiotic little shins, the way 
 she took him up, and kissed him, and got him 
 to laughing, while he, Geoffrey, plastered him 
 up; and it hurt too, getting the gravel out. 
 When that violoncello note gets into her voice 
 well, you know! Yes, she must certainly 
 ride the bicycle ! What could be more restor 
 ing, more delightful, than to ride along a 
 country road like this, in the soft afternoon, 
 when the heat of the day was over? The 
 honey-clover was in blossom ; there were 
 clusters of it everywhere, making the whole 
 air sweet. Of course he would watch her, 
 keep note of her colour and breathing, see 
 that she did not overdo it. Of course it was 
 his business to see to all that. What was 
 that the old professor used to say ? 
 
 "There are two hands upon the pulse of
 
 BROKEN BONES 171 
 
 life ; the detective's, to surprise and confound, 
 the physician's, to help and to heal." 
 
 It was that, after all, that feeling, that de 
 cided one to be a physician. If he could do 
 anything to help this beautiful and yes, 
 noble creature, he was bound to do it, wasn't 
 he, whether her aunts liked it or not ? even, 
 perhaps, whether she herself liked it or not. 
 Well, but she would like it, she couldn't help 
 liking it, once she tried it. She was built for 
 a rider. He might borrow Miss Flabb's wheel 
 for her. It was absurd for Miss Flabb to 
 attempt to ride; she would never do enough 
 to take down her flesh, and meantime, being 
 near-sighted, she was at the mercy of every 
 stray dec and hen, and likely to be run down 
 by the first scorcher on the highroad. Now 
 with him, even at the beginning, Vesta would 
 have nothing to fear. He would 
 
 At this moment came an interruption. The 
 interruption had four legs, and barked. It
 
 172 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 came from a neighbouring farmhouse, and flew 
 straight at the wheel, which was also flying, 
 for the young doctor was apt to ride fast when 
 he was thinking. There was a whirl of arms, 
 legs, wheels, and tails, a heavy fall, and the 
 dog ran off on three legs, ki-hying to the 
 skies, and the young doctor lay still in 
 the road. 
 
 Half an hour later, Mr. Ithuriel Butters 
 stopped at the door of the Temple of Vesta. 
 He was driving a pair of comfortable old 
 white horses, who went to sleep as soon as he 
 said " Whoa ! " He looked up at the house, 
 and then behind him in the wagon. Seeing 
 nobody at the windows, he looked up and 
 down the street, and was aware of a young 
 woman approaching. He hailed her. 
 
 "Say, do you know the folks in that 
 house ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Vesta ; " I am staying there."
 
 BEOKEN BONES 173 
 
 " Be ! " said Mr. Butters. " Wai, Doctor 
 Strong boards there too, don't he ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I don't think he is in now, 
 though." 
 
 " I know he ain't ! " said Ithuriel Butters. 
 
 Vesta looked with interest at the stalwart 
 old figure, and strong keen face. Most of the 
 wrinkles in the face had come from smiling, 
 but it was grave enough now. 
 
 "Will you come in and wait," she asked, 
 " or leave a message ? " 
 
 "Wai, I guess I won't do neither this 
 time ! " said Mr. Butters, slowly. 
 
 Vesta looked at him in some perplexity; 
 he returned a glance of grave meaning. 
 
 "You kin to him?" asked the old man. 
 " Sister, or cousin, mebbe ? " 
 
 " No ! what is it ? something has happened 
 to Doctor Strong!" Vesta's hand tightened 
 on the rail of the steps. 
 
 " Keepin' company with him, p'raps ? "
 
 174 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " No, oh, no ! will you tell me at once, please, 
 and plainly, what has happened ? " 
 
 Vesta spoke quietly; in her normal condi 
 tion she was always quieter when moved ; but 
 the colour seemed to fall from her cheeks as 
 her eyes followed those of the old man to 
 something that lay long and still in the cart 
 behind him. 
 
 "Fact is," said Mr. Butters, "I've got him 
 here. 'Pears to be" the strong old voice 
 faltered for an instant " 'pears to be bust up 
 some consid'able. I found him in the ro'd a 
 piece back, with his velocipede tied up all over 
 him. He ain't dead, nor he ain't asleep, but I 
 can't git nothin' out of him, so I jest brung 
 him along. I'll h'ist him out, if you say so." 
 
 " Can you ? " said Vesta. " I will help you. 
 I am strong enough. Will your horses stand ? " 
 
 " They can't fall down, 'count of the shafts," 
 said Mr. Butters, clambering slowly down from 
 his seat, "and they won't do nothin' else.
 
 BROKEN BONES 175 
 
 We'll git him out now, jest as easy. I think 
 a sight of that young feller ; made me feel bad, 
 I tell ye, to see him there all stove up, and 
 think mebbe " 
 
 " Don't, please ! " said Vesta. " I am not 
 very strong " 
 
 " Thought you said you was ! " said Ithuriel 
 Butters. " You stand one side, then, if it's the 
 same to you. I can carry him as easy as I 
 would a baby, and I wouldn't hurt him no 
 more'n I would one." 
 
 "There are two hands upon the pulse of 
 life ! " said the young doctor. 
 
 No one replied to this remark, nor did he 
 appear to expect a reply. The room was 
 darkened, and he was lying on his bed; at 
 least some ono was, he supposed it was 
 himself. There was a smell of drugs. Some 
 one had been hurt. 
 
 "There are two hands upon the pulse of
 
 176 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 life," he repeated ; " the detective's, to surprise 
 and confound ; the phys phys what ? " 
 
 " Physician's," said some one. 
 
 " That's it ! the physician's, to help and to 
 heal This appears to he combination 
 both " 
 
 The hand was removed from his wrist. He 
 frowned heavily, and asked if he were a Mo 
 hammedan. Receiving no answer, repeated 
 the question with some irritation. 
 
 " I don't think so," said the same quiet voice. 
 " Then why turban ? " he frowned again, and 
 brought the folds of linen lower over his nose. 
 They were quietly readjusted. The light, 
 firm hand was laid on his forehead for a mo 
 ment, then once more on his wrist. Then 
 something was put to his lips; he was told 
 to drink, and did so. Than he said, "My 
 name is Geoffrey Strong. There is nothing the 
 matter with me." 
 
 "Yes, I know."
 
 BROKEN BONES 177 
 
 "But if you take away your hand I 
 can't hold on, you know." 
 
 The hand was laid firmly on his. He sighed 
 comfortably, murmuring something about not 
 knowing that violoncellos had hands ; dozed a 
 few minutes ; dragged himself up from unim 
 aginable depths to ask, "You are sure you 
 understand that about the pulse ? " 
 
 Being answered, " Yes, I quite understand," 
 said, " Then you'll see to it ! " and slept like a 
 baby. 
 
 When he woke next morning, it was with 
 an alert and inquisitive eye. The eye glanced 
 here and there, taking in details. 
 
 " What the what is all this? " 
 
 There was a soft flurry, and Miss Vesta was 
 beside him. " Oh ! my dear my dear young 
 friend ! thank God, you are yourself again !" 
 
 Geoffrey's eyes softened into tenderness as 
 he looked at her. "Dear Miss Vesta! what 
 is the matter ? I seem to have " He tried
 
 178 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 to move his right arm, but stopped \vith a 
 grimace. "I seem to have smashed myself. 
 Would it bother you to tell me about it? 
 Stop, though ! I remember ! a dog ran out, and 
 got tangled up in the spokes. Oh, yes, I re 
 member. Am I much damaged ? arm broken 
 who set it ? that's a nice bandage, anyhow. 
 But why the malignant and the turbaned Turk 
 effect ? is my head broken, too ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, dear Doctor Strong, nothing malig 
 nant; nothing at all of that nature, I assure 
 you, Oh, I hope, I hope the arm is properly 
 cared for ! but it was so unfortunate his being 
 laid up with pleurisy just at this time, wasn't 
 it ? and a severe contusion on your head, you 
 see, so that for some hours we were sadly 
 but now you are entirely yourself, and we are 
 so humbly and devoutly thankful, dear Doctor 
 Strong!" 
 
 " I think you might say ' Geoffrey,' when I 
 am all broke up ! " said the boy.
 
 BROKEN BONES 179 
 
 " Geoffrey, dear Geoffrey ! " murmured Miss 
 Vesta, patting his sound arm softly. 
 
 "I think you might sit down by me and 
 tell me all about it. Who is laid up with 
 pleurisy ? how much am I broken ? who 
 brought me home ? who set my arm ? I want 
 to know all about it, please!" 
 
 The young doctor spoke with cheerful im- 
 periousness. Miss Vesta glanced timorously 
 toward the door, then sat down by the bedside. 
 "Hush!" she said, softly. "You must not 
 excite yourself, my dear young friend, you 
 must not, indeed. I will tell you all about it, 
 if you think if you are quite sure you ought 
 to be told. You are a physician, of course, 
 but she was very anxious that you should not 
 be excited." 
 
 " Who was anxious ? I shall be very much 
 excited if you keep things from me, Miss 
 Vesta. I feel my temperature going up this 
 moment."
 
 180 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " Dear ! dear ! " cried poor Miss Vesta. " Try 
 to to restrain it, Geoffrey, I implore you. 
 I will I will tell you at once. As you sur 
 mise, my dear, a dog we suppose it to have 
 been a dog, though I am not aware that any 
 one saw the accident. An old man whom you 
 once attended Mr. Butters; you spoke of 
 him, I remember found you lying in the 
 road, my child, quite unconscious. He is an 
 unpolished person, but possessed of warm 
 affections. I I can never forget his tender 
 solicitude about you. He brought you home 
 in his wagon, and carried you into the house. 
 He volunteered to go to Greening for Doctor 
 Namby " 
 
 "Namby never put on this bandage !" inter 
 rupted Geoffrey. 
 
 " No, Geoffrey, no ! we do not think highly 
 of Doctor Namby, but there was no one else, 
 for you seem to feel so strongly about Doctor 
 Pottle"
 
 BROKEN BONES 181 
 
 " Pottle is a boiled cabbage-head i " said 
 Geoffrey. " He couldn't set a lien's leg with 
 out tying it in bow-knots, let alone a man's 
 arm. Who did set it, Miss Vesta ? I'm sure 
 I must be up to 105 by this time. I can't 
 answer for the consequences, you know, if " 
 
 " Oh ! hush ! hush ! " cried Miss Vesta. " He 
 had the pleurisy, as I said ; very badly indeed, 
 poor man, so that he was quite, quite in 
 valided " 
 
 Pottle had ? serve him " 
 
 "No, no, Geoffrey; Doctor Namby had. 
 And so she was quite positive she under 
 stood the case, and Mr. Butters upheld her 
 
 oh, I trust, I trust I did not do wrong in 
 allowing her to take so grave a responsibility 
 
 Sister Phrebe in bed with her erysipelas 
 
 Geoffrey you will not be angry, my dear 
 young friend ? Little Vesta set the arm ! " 
 
 The word finally spoken, Miss Vesta sat 
 panting quickly and softly, like a frightened
 
 182 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 bird, her eyes fixed anxiously on the young 
 doctor. 
 
 The young doctor whistled ; then considered 
 the arm again with keen scrutiny. 
 
 " The de that is she did, did she ? " he 
 said, half to himself. He felt it all over with 
 his sound hand, and inspected it again. " Well, 
 it's a mighty good job," he said, "whoever 
 did it." 
 
 Miss Vesta's sigh of relief was almost a 
 gasp. Geoffrey looked up quickly, and saw 
 her gentle eyes brimming with tears. 
 
 "You dear angel!" he cried, taking her 
 hand. "I have made you anxious. I am a 
 brute a cuttlefish hang me, somebody, 
 do!" 
 
 " Oh ! hush, hush ! my boy ! " cried the little 
 lady, wiping away her tears. " It was only 
 the relief, Geoffrey. To feel that you are not 
 angry at her Sister Phoebe would call it pre 
 sumption, but Vesta did not mean to be
 
 EEOKEN BONES 183 
 
 presumptuous, Geoffrey and that you think 
 it is not so ill done as I feared. I I am so 
 happy, that is all, my dear ! " 
 
 She wept silently, and Geoffrey lay and 
 called himself names. Presently " Where 
 is she ? " he asked. 
 
 " Sister Phoebe ? she is still in bed, and suf 
 fering a good deal. I am continuing the 
 remedies you gave her. I I have thought 
 it best to let her suppose that Doctor Namby 
 had attended you, Geoffrey. She is very ner 
 vous, and I feared to excite her." 
 
 Geoffrey commended her wisdom, but made 
 it clear that he was not thinking of Miss 
 Phoebe. Couldn't he see Miss Little Vesta? 
 he asked. He wanted to to thank her 
 for what she had done, and ask just how 
 she had done it. There were all sorts of 
 details in short, it was important that he 
 should see her at once. Asleep? Why 
 it seemed unreasonable that she should be
 
 184 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 asleep at this hour of the morning. Was she 
 not well? 
 
 " She she watched by you most of the 
 night ! " Miss Vesta confessed. " Your head 
 she was afraid of congestion, and wanted the 
 cloths changed frequently. She would not 
 let me sit up, Geoffrey, though I begged her 
 to let me do so. She will come as soon as 
 she wakes, I am sure." 
 
 " I told you I was a cuttlefish ! " said Geof 
 frey. "Now you see! I I believe I am 
 getting sleepy again, Miss Vesta. What is 
 that pretty thing you have around your neck ? 
 Did she sit in that chair? What a fool a 
 man is when he is asleep ! " 
 
 Seeing his eyelids droop, Miss Vesta moved 
 softly away ; was called back at the door, and 
 found him looking injured. "You haven't 
 tucked me up ! " he said. 
 
 Miss Vesta tucked him up with delicate 
 precision, and drew the snowy counterpane
 
 BROKEN BONES 185 
 
 into absolute smoothness. " There ! " she said, 
 her gentle eyes beaming with maternal pleas 
 ure. " Is there anything else, dear doctor I 
 mean dear Geoffrey ? " 
 
 "No, nothing unless I don't suppose 
 angels ever kiss people, do they ? " 
 
 Very pink indeed, even to her pretty little 
 ears, Miss Vesta stooped and deposited a very 
 small and very timid kiss on his forehead; 
 then slipped away like a little shocked ghost, 
 wondering what Sister Phoebe would say.
 
 CHAPTEK XIL 
 
 CONVALESCENCE 
 
 "WHERE did you get your splints?" asked 
 Geoffrey. " Was this thing all arranged be 
 forehand ? you confess to the bandages in your 
 trunk." 
 
 Vesta laughed. " Your poor cigars ! I tum 
 bled them out of their box with very little 
 ceremony. See them, scattered all over the 
 table ! I must put them tidy." 
 
 She moved to the table, and began piling 
 the cigars in a hollow square. "A cigar-box 
 makes excellent splints," she said; "did you 
 ever try it ? " 
 
 But Geoffrey was thinking what a singu 
 lar amount of light a white dress seemed 
 
 186
 
 CONVALESCENCE 187 
 
 to bring into a room, and did not immediately 
 reply. 
 
 When he did speak, he said, " You watched 
 me I kept you up all night. I ought to be 
 shot." 
 
 " That would be twice as troublesome," said 
 Vesta, gravely ; " I can set an arm, but I don't 
 know anything about wounds, except theoret 
 ically. Perhaps you would'nt like theoretic 
 treatment." 
 
 " Perhaps not. Was there it seems a per 
 fectly absurd question to ask, but well, was 
 any one playing the 'cello here last night? 
 why do you laugh ? " 
 
 " Only because you seem to have the 'cello 
 so on your mind. You said such funny things 
 last night, while you were light-headed, you 
 know." 
 
 Geoffrey became conscious of the roots of 
 his hair. " What did I say ? " he asked. 
 
 "You seemed to think that some one was
 
 188 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 playing the 'cello ; or rather, you fancied there 
 was a 'cello in the room, and it seemed to be 
 endowed with life. You said, ' I didn't know 
 that 'cellos had hands ! ' and then you asked if 
 it spoke Spanish. I couldn't help laughing a 
 little at that, and you were quite short with 
 me, and told me I that didn't know phlox 
 from flaxseed. It was very curious ! " 
 
 "Must have been!" said Geoffrey, dryly. 
 " I'm only thankful was that the worst 
 thing I said?" 
 
 "Wasn't that bad enough? yes, that was 
 the very worst. I am going out now, Doctor 
 Strong. Is there anything I can do for you ? " 
 
 " Going out ! " repeated Geoffrey, in dismay. 
 
 "Yes. I have some errands to do. What 
 is it?" for the cloud on his brow was un 
 mistakable. 
 
 " Oh nothing ! I thought you were going 
 to see to this crack in my skull, but it's no 
 matter."
 
 CONVALESCENCE 189 
 
 " It is hardly two hours since I dressed it," 
 said Vesta. " I thought you said it felt very 
 comfortable." 
 
 "Well it did; but it hurts now, con 
 siderably. No matter, though, if you are busy. 
 I dare say I could get Pottle to come in some 
 time in the course of the day." 
 
 He had the grace to be ashamed of himself, 
 when Yesta brought basin and sponge, and 
 began quietly and patiently to dress the in 
 jured temple. 
 
 " I know I am fractious," he said, plaintively. 
 " I can't seem to help it." 
 
 He looked up, and saw her clear eyes intent 
 and full of light. 
 
 "It is healing beautifully'" she said. "I 
 wish you could see it; it's a lovely colour 
 now." 
 
 " It's a shame to give you all this trouble," 
 said Geoffrey, trying to feel real contrition. 
 
 " Oh, but I like it ! " he was cheerfully as-
 
 190 GEOFFEEY STEONG 
 
 sured. " It's delightful to see a cut like this." 
 
 " Thank you ! " said Geoffrey. " I used to 
 feel that way myself." 
 
 " And the callous is going to form quickly 
 in the arm, I am sure of it ! " said Vesta, with 
 shining eyes. " I am so pleased with you, 
 Doctor Strong! And now there! is that 
 all right ? Take the glass and see if you like 
 the looks of it. I think the turban effect is 
 rather becoming. Now is there any one you 
 would like me to go and see while I am out ? 
 Of course I have no diploma, nothing of the 
 sort, but I could carry out your orders faith 
 fully, and report to you." 
 
 "Oh, you are very good!" said Geoffrey. 
 " But you would be gone all the I mean 
 your aunts might need you, don't you 
 think?" 
 
 "No, indeed! Aunt Phosbe is better I 
 gave her the drops, and Aunt Vesta is bathing 
 her now with the lotion I can take the
 
 CONVALESCENCE 191 
 
 afternoon perfectly well. Your case-book ? 
 this one ? no, truly, Doctor Strong, it will be a 
 pleasure, a real pleasure." 
 
 " You're awfully good ! " said Geoffrey, rue 
 fully. 
 
 "It is the most unfortunate combination I 
 ever heard of ! " said Miss Phoebe Blyth. 
 
 Miss Phoebe was in bed, too, and suffering 
 very considerable discomfort. Erysipelas is 
 not a thing to speak lightly of ; and if it got 
 into Miss Phoebe's temper as well as into her 
 eyes, this was not to be wondered at. 
 
 Miss Yesta murmured some soothing words, 
 and bathed the angry red places gently ; but 
 Miss Phoebe was not to be soothed. 
 
 " It is all very well for you, Vesta," said the 
 poor lady, " you have never had any respon 
 sibility; of course it is not to be supposed 
 that you should have, with what you have 
 gone through. But with all I have on my
 
 192 GEOFFBEY STEONQ 
 
 shoulders, to be laid up in this way is 
 really, I must say ! " 
 
 This last remark was the sternest censure 
 that Miss Phoebe was ever known to bestow 
 upon the Orderings of Providence. 
 
 "Has Doctor Pottle attended to the doc 
 tor's arm this morning?" 
 
 This was the question Miss Vesta had 
 been dreading. She pretended not to hear 
 it; but it was repeated with incisive severity. 
 
 "You are getting a little hard of hearing, 
 Vesta. I asked you, has Doctor Strong's arm 
 been attended to this morning ? " 
 
 " Yes ! oh, yes, Sister Phoebe, it has. And 
 it is healing finely, and so is his head. 
 She says I mean " 
 
 "You mean he says!" said Miss Phrebe, 
 with a superior air. "This excitement is too 
 much for you, Vesta. We shall have you 
 breaking down next. I do not know that I 
 care to hear precisely what Doctor Pottle
 
 CONVALESCENCE 193 
 
 says. In such an emergency as this we were 
 forced to call him in, but I have a poor opin 
 ion of his skill, and none of his intelligence. 
 If our dear Doctor Strong is doing well, that 
 is all I need to know." 
 
 " Yes, Sister Phoebe," acquiesced Miss Vesta, 
 with silent thanksgiving. 
 
 "When you next visit Doctor Strong's 
 room," Miss Phoebe continued, "I regret 
 that you should be obliged to do so, my 
 dear Vesta, but the disparity in your years 
 is so great as to obviate any glaring impro 
 priety, and besides, there seems to be no help 
 for it, when you next visit him, I beg you 
 to give him my kindest yes ! I am con 
 vinced that there can be no you may say 
 my affectionate regards, Vesta. Tell him that 
 I find myself distinctly better to-day, thanks, 
 no doubt, to the remedies he has prescribed; 
 and that I trust in a short time to be able to 
 give my personal supervision to his recovery.
 
 194 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 You may point out to him that a period of 
 seclusion and meditation, even when not un 
 mixed with suffering, may often be productive 
 of beneficial results, moral as well as physical ; 
 and in a mind like his hark ! what is that 
 sound, Vesta ? " 
 
 Miss Vesta listened. " I think it is Doc 
 tor Strong," she said. " I think he is singing, 
 Sister Phoebe. I cannot distinguish the words ; 
 very likely some hymn his mother taught 
 him. Dear lad ! " 
 
 " He has a beautiful spirit ! " said Miss 
 Phoebe; "there are less signs of active piety 
 than I could wish, but he has a beautiful spirit. 
 Yes, you are right, it is a hymn, Vesta." 
 
 Even if Miss Vesta had distinguished the 
 words, it would have made little difference, 
 since she did not understand Italian. For 
 this is what the young doctor was singing: 
 
 " Voi che sapete che cosa e 1'amor, 
 Donne, vedete s'io i'ho nel cuor I "
 
 CONVALESCENCE 195 
 
 The sisters listened; Miss Phoebe erect 
 among her pillows, her nightcap tied in a 
 rigid little bow under her chin; Miss Vesta 
 sitting beside her, wistful and anxious, full of 
 tender solicitude for sister, friend, niece, 
 in fact, for all her little world. But neither 
 of them could tell the young doctor what he 
 wanted to know. 
 
 It was near sunset when Vesta came again 
 into the young doctor's room. He was sitting 
 in the big armchair by the window. He was 
 cross, and thought medicine a profession for 
 dogs. 
 
 " I trust you have enjoyed your afternoon ! " 
 he said, morosely. Then he looked up at the 
 radiant face and happy eyes, and told himself 
 that he was a squid; cuttlefish was too good 
 a name for him. 
 
 Vesta smiled and nodded, a little out of 
 breath.
 
 196 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 "I ran up-stairs!" she said. "I didn't 
 think, and I just ran. I am well, Doctor 
 Strong, do you realise it ? Oh, it is so won 
 derful ! It is worth it all, every bit, to feel 
 the spring coming back. You told me it 
 would, you know; I didn't believe you, and 
 I hasten to do homage to your superior intel 
 ligence. Hail, Solomon! Yes, I have had a 
 most delightful afternoon, and now you shall 
 hear all about it." 
 
 She sat down, and took out the note-book. 
 Geoffrey had been wondering all the afternoon 
 what colour her eyes were, now that they had 
 ceased to be dark agates. "I know now!" 
 he said. " They are like Mary Donnelly's. 
 
 Her eyes like mountain water 
 
 Where it's running o'er a rock.'" 
 
 "Whose eyes ?" asked Vesta. "Not Luella 
 Slocum's ? I was just going to tell you about 
 her."
 
 CONVALESCENCE 197 
 
 "No, not hers. How is she? You must 
 have had a sweet time there." 
 
 Vesta gave her head a backward shake 
 it was a pretty way she had and laughed. 
 " I am sure I did her good," she said. " She 
 was so angry at my coming, so sure I didn't 
 know anything, and so consumed with desire 
 to know what and where and how long I 
 had studied, and what my father was think 
 ing of to allow me, and what my mother 
 would have said if she had lived to see the 
 day, and what my aunts would say as it 
 was, that she actually forgot her tic, poor 
 soul, and talked a great deal, and freed her 
 mind. It's a great thing to free the mind. 
 But she said I need not call again; and 
 I'm afraid I have got you into disgrace, too, 
 for when I said that you would come as 
 soon as you were able, she sniffed, and said 
 she would let you know if she wanted you. 
 I am sorry ! "
 
 198 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 " Are you ? " said Geoffrey. " I am not. 
 She will send for Pottle to-morrow, and he 
 will suit her exactly. Where else did you 
 go?" 
 
 Several cases were given in detail, and for 
 a time the talk was sternly professional 
 Geoffrey found his questions answered clearly 
 and directly, with no superfluous words ; 
 moreover, there seemed to be judgment and 
 intelligence. Well, he always said that one 
 woman in ten thousand might 
 
 Coming to the last case in the book, 
 Vesta's face lightened into laughter. 
 
 "Oh, those Binney children!" she said. 
 "They were so funny and dear! I had a 
 delightful time there. They were all much 
 better, Paul's fever entirely gone, and Ellie's 
 throat hardly inflamed at all. They wanted to 
 get up, but I didn't think they would better 
 before to-morrow, so we played menagerie, 
 and had a great tima"
 
 CONVALESCENCE 199 
 
 " Played menagerie ? " 
 
 " Yes. I made a hollow square with the 
 cribs and some chairs, and they were the 
 lions, and I was the tamer. We played for 
 an hour, Mrs. Binney was tired, and I 
 made her go and lie down, and then 
 I sang them to sleep, dear little lambs, and 
 came away and left them." 
 
 "I see!" said Geoffrey. "That is what 
 made you so late. Do you think it's ex 
 actly professional to play menagerie for an 
 hour and a half with your patients?" 
 
 Vesta laughed; the happy sound of her 
 laughter fretted his nerves. 
 
 " I suppose that is the way you will prac 
 tise, when you have taken your degree ! " he 
 said, disagreeably. 
 
 The girl flushed, and the happy light left 
 her eyes. "Don't talk of that!" she said. 
 "I told you I had given it up once and for 
 all"
 
 200 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 "But you are well now; and I am 
 bound to say you seem in many ways 
 qualified for a physician. You might try 
 again when you are entirely strong." 
 
 " And break down again ? thank you. No ; 
 I have proved to myself that I cannot do 
 it, and there is an end," 
 
 "Then it's no business of mine, of 
 course what will you do ? " asked Geof 
 frey. His ill-temper was dying out. The 
 sound of her voice, so full, so even, so 
 cordial, filled him like wine. He wanted her 
 to go on talking; it did not matter much 
 about what. 
 
 "What will you do?" he repeated, as the 
 girl remained silent. 
 
 "Oh, I don't know! I suppose I shall 
 just be a plain woman the rest of my life." 
 
 "I don't think plain is exactly the word!" 
 said Geoffrey. 
 
 "You didn't think 'pretty* was!" said
 
 CONVALESCENCE 201 
 
 Vesta; and, with a flash of laughter, she was 
 gone. 
 
 Geoffrey had not wanted her to go. He 
 had been alone all the afternoon. ( Ah, dear 
 Miss Vesta ! was it solitude, the patient hour 
 you spent by his side, reading to him, chat 
 ting, trying your best to cheer the depression 
 that you partly saw, partly divined ? yes ; 
 for when an experiment in soul-chemistry 
 is going on, it is one element, and one only, 
 that can produce the needed result!) He 
 had been alone, I say, all the afternoon, 
 and his head ached, and there were shooting 
 pains in his arm, and he used to think 
 it would be so interesting to break a bone, 
 that one would learn so much better in that 
 kind of way. Well, he was learning, learn 
 ing no end; only you wanted some one to 
 talk it over with. There was no fun in 
 knowing things if there was no one to tell 
 about them. And anyhow, this bandage was
 
 202 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 getting quite dry, or it would be soon. There 
 was the bowl of water on the stand beside 
 him, but he could not change bandages with 
 one hand. He heard Vesta stirring about in 
 her room, the room next his. She was sing 
 ing softly to herself; it didn't trouble her 
 much that he was all alone, and suffering 
 a good deaL She had a cold nature. Absurd 
 for a person to be singing to chairs and tables, 
 when other people 
 
 He coughed; coughed again; sighed long 
 and audibly. The soft singing stopped; was 
 she 
 
 No ! it went on again. He knew the tune, 
 but he could not hear the words. There was 
 nothing so exasperating as not to be able to 
 place a song. 
 
 Crash! something shivered on the floor. 
 Vesta came running, the song still on her 
 lips. Her patient was flushed, and looked 
 studiously out of the window.
 
 CONVALESCENCE 203 
 
 " What is it ? Oh, the bowl ! I am so 
 sorry ! How did it happen ? " 
 
 " It fell down ! " said Geoffrey. 
 
 Vesta was on her knees, picking up the 
 pieces, sopping the spilt water with a towel. 
 He regarded her with remorseful triumph. 
 
 "You were singing!" he said, at length. 
 
 "Was I? did I disturb you? I won't " 
 
 " No ! I don't mean that. I wanted to 
 hear the words. I I threw the bowl down 
 on purpose." 
 
 Vesta looked up in utter amazement ; 
 meeting the young doctor's eyes, something 
 in them brought the lovely colour flooding 
 over her face and neck. 
 
 " That was childish ! " she said, quietly, 
 and went on picking up the pieces. "It 
 was a valuable bowl." 
 
 "I am feverish!" said Geoffrey. "This 
 bandage is getting dry, and I am all prickles." 
 
 Vesta hesitated a moment; then she laid
 
 204 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 her hand on his forehead. "You have no 
 fever ! " she said. " You are flushed and 
 restless, but Doctor Strong, this is con 
 valescence ! " 
 
 A 
 
 " Is that what you call it ? " eaid Geoffrey.
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 RECOVEKY 
 
 ' real smart, be ye?" asked Mr. 
 Ithuriel Butters. "Wai, I'm pleased to hear 
 it." 
 
 Mr. Butters sat in the young doctor's 
 second armchair, and looked at him with 
 friendly eyes. His broad back was turned to 
 the window, but Geoffrey faced it, and the 
 light showed his face pale, indeed, but full of 
 returning health and life ; his arm was still in 
 a sling, but his movements otherwise were free 
 and unrestrained. 
 
 " You're lookin' fust-rate," said Mr. Butters. 
 " Some different from the last time I see ye." 
 
 " I wonder what would have become of me 
 
 206
 
 206 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 if you had not happened along just then, Mr. 
 Butters," said Geoffrey. " I think I owe you a 
 great deal more than you are willing to 
 acknowledge." 
 
 " Nothin' at all ; nothin' at all ! " said the old 
 man, briskly. " I h'isted ye up out the ro'd, 
 that was all ; I sh'd have had to h'ist jest the 
 same if ye'd be'n a critter or a lawg, takin' up 
 the hull ro'd the way ye did." 
 
 "And how about bringing me home, three 
 miles out of your way, and carrying me up 
 stairs, and all that ? I suppose you would have 
 done all that for a critter, eh ? " 
 
 "Wai depends upon the value of the 
 critter ! " said Mr. Butters, with a twinkle. " I 
 never kep' none of mine up-stairs, but there's 
 no knowin' these days of fancy stock. No, 
 young man ! if there's anybody for you to 
 thank, it's that young woman. Now there's 
 a gal what's her name ? I didn't gather it 
 that day."
 
 RECOVERY 207 
 
 Vesta Miss Vesta Blyth." 
 
 " I want to know ! my fust wife's name was 
 Vesty; Vesty Barlow she was; yes, sir. I 
 do'no' but I liked her best of any of 'em. Not 
 but what I've had good ones since, but 'twas 
 different then, seems' though. She was the 
 ch'ice of my youth, ye see. Yes, sir ; Vesty is 
 a good name, and that's a good gal, if I know 
 anything about gals. She's no kin to you, she 
 said." 
 
 " No ; none whatever." 
 
 "Nor yet you ain't keepin' company with 
 her?" 
 
 " No-o ! " cried Geoffrey, wincing. 
 
 " Ain't you asked her ? " 
 
 "No! please don't " 
 
 "Why not?" demanded Mr. Butters, with 
 ample severity. 
 
 Geoffrey tried to laugh, and failed. "I I 
 can't talk about these things, Mr. Butters." 
 
 " Don't you want her ? " the old man went
 
 208 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 on, pitilessly. Geoffrey looked up angrily; 
 looked up, and met a look so kind and true 
 and simple, that his anger died, still-born. 
 
 "Yes!" he said. "God knows I do. But 
 you are wholly mistaken in thinking that is 
 she wouldn't have me." 
 
 " I expect she would ! " said Ithuriel Butters. 
 " I expect that is jest what she would have. I 
 see her when you was layin' there, all stove 
 up ; you might have be'n barrel-staves, the way 
 you looked. I see her face, and I don't need 
 to see no more." 
 
 Geoffrey tried to say something about kind 
 ness and womanly pity, but the strong old 
 voice bore him down. 
 
 " I know what pity looks like, and I know 
 the other thing. She's no soft-heart to squinch 
 at the sight of blood, and that sort of foolery. 
 Tell ye, she was jest as quiet and cool as if 
 'twas a church sociable, and she set that bone 
 as easy and chirk as my woman would take a
 
 RECOVERY 209 
 
 pie out the oven; but when she had you all 
 piecened up, and stood and looked at you 
 wal, there ! " 
 
 " Don't ! I cannot let you ! " cried Geoffrey. 
 His voice was full of distress ; but was it the 
 western sun that made his face so bright ? 
 
 "Wal, there's all kinds of fools," said Mr. 
 Butters. " Got the teethache ? " 
 
 " Toothache ? no ! why ? " 
 
 " Thought you hollered as if ye had. How 
 would you go to work to cure the teethache 
 now, s'posin' you had it ? " 
 
 " I should go to a dentist, and let him cure 
 it for me." 
 
 " S'posin' you lived ten mile from a dentist, 
 young feller ? you're too used to settin' in the 
 middle of creation and jerkin' the reins for the 
 hoss to go. Jonas E. Homer had the teeth- 
 ache once, bad." 
 
 He paused. 
 
 "Well," said the young doctor, "who was
 
 210 GEOFFEEY STRONG 
 
 Jonas E. Homer, and how did he cure his 
 toothache ? " 
 
 " Jonas Elimelech was his full name," said 
 Mr. Butters, settling himself comfortably in 
 his chair. " He's neighbour to me, about five 
 miles out on the Buffy Landin' ro'd. Yes, he 
 had the teethache bad. Wife wanted him to 
 go and have 'em hauled, but he said he 
 wouldn't have no feller goin' fishin' in his 
 mouth. No, sir ! he went and he bored a hole 
 in the northeast side of a beech-tree, and put 
 in a hair of a yaller dawg, and then plugged 
 up the hole with a pine plug. That was ten 
 years ago, and he's never had the teethache 
 sence. He told me that himself." 
 
 " It's a good story," said the young doctor. 
 " Do you believe it, Mr. Butters ? " 
 
 "Wai, I do'no' as I exactly believe it: I 
 was sort of illustratin' the different kinds of 
 fools there was in the world, that's all." 
 
 They were silent. The sun went down,
 
 RECOVERY 211 
 
 but the light stayed in the young doctor's 
 face. 
 
 There was a commotion in the room below. 
 Voices were raised, feminine voices, shrill with 
 excitement. Then came a bustle on the stairs, 
 and the sound of feet ; then one voice, breath 
 less but decided. 
 
 "I tell ye, I know the way. There's no 
 need to show me, and I won't have it. I 
 haven't been up these stairs for near seventy 
 years, Phoabe, since the day of your caudle- 
 party, but I know the way as well as you do, 
 and I'll thank you to stay where you are." 
 
 The next moment the door opened, and 
 Mrs. Tree stood on the threshold, panting and 
 triumphant. Her black eyes twinkled with 
 affection and malice. " Well, young sir ! " she 
 said, as Geoffrey ran to give her his sound 
 arm, and led her in, and placed her in the 
 seat of honour. " Fine doings since I last saw
 
 212 GEOFFEEY STRONG 
 
 you ! Humph ! you look pretty well, consider 
 ing all Who's this ? Ithuriel Butters ! How 
 do you do, Ithuriel? I haven't seen you for 
 forty years, but I should know you in the 
 Fiji Islands." 
 
 "I should know you, too, anywhere, Mis' 
 Tree ! " responded Mr. Butters, heartily. " I'm 
 rejoicin' glad to see ye." 
 
 "You wear well, Ithuriel," said Mrs. Tree, 
 kindly. "If you would cut all that mess of 
 hair and beard, you would be a good-looking 
 man still; but I didn't come here to talk to 
 you." 
 
 She turned to Geoffrey in some excitement. 
 " I'll speak right out," she said. " Now's now, 
 and next time's never. I've let the cat out 
 of the bag. Phoebe has found out about little 
 Vesta's setting your arm and all, and she's 
 proper mad. Says she'll send the child home 
 to-morrow for good and alL She's getting on 
 her shoes this minute; I never could abide
 
 RECOVERY 213 
 
 those morocco shoes. She'll be up here in no 
 time. I thought I'd come up first and tell you." 
 
 She looked eagerly at the young doctor; 
 but his eyes were fixed on the window, and 
 he scarcely seemed to hear her. Following 
 his gaze, she saw a white dress glimmering 
 against the soft dusk of the garden shrubs. 
 
 The young doctor rose abruptly; took one 
 step ; paused, and turned to his guest of ninety 
 years with a little passionate gesture of appeal 
 "I cannot leave you," he said; "unless 
 just one moment " 
 
 "My goodness gracious me!" cried Mrs. 
 Tree. "Go this minute, child; run, do you 
 hear ? I'll take care of Ithuriel Butters. He 
 was in my Sunday-school class, though he's 
 only five years younger than me. Take care 
 and don't fall!" 
 
 The last words were uttered in a small 
 shriek, for apparently there had been but one 
 step to the staircase.
 
 214 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 Breathless, the old woman turned and faced 
 the old man. "Have you got any bumble 
 bees in your pocket this time, Ithuriel ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " No,'m," said Ithuriel, soberly. Then they 
 both stared out of the window with eyes 
 that strove to be as young as they were 
 eager. 
 
 " There he comes, full chisel ! " cried Ithuriel 
 Butters. " She don't see him. He's hollerin' 
 to her. She's turned round. I tell ye he's 
 grabbed holt of her hand ! he's grabbed holt 
 of both her hands ! he's " 
 
 Who says that heroism dies with youth ? 
 Marcia Tree raised her little mitted hand, and 
 pulled down the blind. 
 
 "It's no business of yours or mine what 
 he's doing, Ithuriel Butters!" she said, with 
 dignity. 
 
 Then she began to tremble. " Seventy years 
 ago," she said, "Ira Tree proposed to me in
 
 "There lie comes, full chisel ! " cried Ithuriel Butters.
 
 EECOVEEY 215 
 
 that very garden, under that very syringa-tree. 
 I've been a widow fifty years, Ithuriel, and it 
 seems like yesterday." And a dry sob clicked 
 in her throat. 
 
 "I've buried two good wives," said Mr. 
 Butters, "and my present one seems to be 
 failin' up some. I hope she'll live now, I 
 reelly do." 
 
 "Vesta!" Miss Phoebe's voice rang sharp 
 and shrill through the house. Miss Vesta 
 started. She was at her evening post in the 
 upper hall. The lamp was lighted, the prayer 
 had been said. 
 
 "Dear Lord, I beseech thee, protect all 
 souls at sea this night; for Jesus Christ's 
 sake. Amen ! " 
 
 But Miss Vesta was not watching the sea 
 this time. Her eyes, too, were bent down 
 upon the twilight garden. The lamplight 
 fell softly there, and threw into relief the
 
 216 GEOFFREY STRONG 
 
 two figures pacing up and down, hand in hand, 
 heart in heart. Miss Vesta could not hear, 
 and would not if she could have heard, the 
 words her children were saying ; her heart 
 was lifted as high as heaven, in peace and 
 joy and thankfulness, and the words that 
 sounded in her ear were spoken by a voice 
 long silent in death. 
 
 "Vesta!" 
 
 Miss Phosbe's voice rang sharp and shrill 
 through the silent house. Instinct and habit 
 answered the call at once. " Yes, Sister 
 Phcebe!" 
 
 "Stay where you are! I am coming to 
 you. I have discovered " 
 
 The figures below paused full in the lamp 
 light. Two faces shone out, one all on fire 
 with joy and wonder, the other sweet and 
 white as the white flower at her breast. 
 
 Miss Phoabe's morocco shoes creaked around 
 the corner of the passage.
 
 RECOVERY 217 
 
 " Good Lord, forgive me, and save all souls 
 at sea just the same ! " said Miss Vesta ; and 
 she blew out the lamp. 
 
 THE END.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 AR 18 1957 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
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 LOS ANGELES
 
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