Doc. Gordon | Page 8

"I? What can I do, young man, but stick to it whether I like it or not?
What would they do? Yes, I suppose I am fool enough to like a dog's
life, or rather to be unwilling to leave it. No money could induce me
anyhow. I suppose you know there is not much money in it?"
James said that he had not supposed a fortune was to be made in a
country practice.
"The last bill any of them will pay is the doctor's," said Doctor Gordon.
Then he added with a laugh, "especially when the doctor is myself.
They have to pay a specialist from New York, but I wait until they are
underground, and the relatives, I find, stick faster to the monetary
remains than the bark to a tree. If I hadn't a little private fortune, and
my--sister a little of her own, I expect we should starve."
James noticed with a little surprise the doctor's hesitation before he
spoke of his sister. It seemed then that he was not married. Somehow,
James had thought of him as married as a matter of course.
Doctor Gordon hastened to explain, as if divining the other's attitude. "I
dare say you don't know anything about my family relations," said he.
"My widowed sister, Mrs. Ewing, keeps house for me. I live with her
and her daughter. I think you will like them both, and I think they will
like you, though I'll be hanged if I have grasped anything of you so far
but your medicine-case and your voice. Your voice is all right. You
give yourself away by it, and I always like that."
James straightened himself a little. There was something bantering in
the other's tone. It made him feel young, and he resented being made to
feel young. He himself at that time felt older than he ever would feel
again. He realized that he was not being properly estimated. "If," said
he, with some heat, "a patient can make out anything by my voice as to
what I think, I miss my guess."

"I dare say not," said Doctor Gordon, and his own voice was as if he
put the matter aside.
He spoke to the horse, whose trot quickened, and they went on in
silence.
At last James began to feel rather ashamed of himself. He unstiffened.
"I had quite an exciting and curious experience after I left Stanbridge,"
said he.
"Did you?" said the other in an absent voice.
James went on to relate the matter in detail. His companion turned an
intent face upon him as he proceeded. "How far back was it?" he asked,
and his tone was noticeably agitated.
"Just after I left the last house in Stanbridge. We went on together to
Westover. She mentioned something about going to see a friend there. I
think Lipton was the name, and she left me suddenly."
"What was the girl like?"
"Small and slight, and very pretty."
"Dressed in brown?"
"Yes."
"How did the man look?" Doctor Gordon's voice fairly alarmed the
young man.
"I hardly can say. I saw him distinctly, but only for a second. The
impression he gave me was of a middle-aged man, although he looked
young."
"Good-looking?"
"My God, no!" said James, as the man's face seemed to loom up before
him again. "He looked like the devil."

"A man may look like the devil, and yet be distinctly handsome."
"Well, I suppose he was; but give me the homeliest face on earth rather
than a face like that man's, if I must needs have anything to do with
him." The young fellow's voice broke. He was very young. He caught
the other man by his rough coat sleeve. "See here, Doctor Gordon,"
said he, "my profession is to save life. That is the main end of it but,
but--I don't honestly know what I should think right, if I were asked to
save that man's life."
"Was he well dressed?"
"More than well dressed, richly, a fur-lined coat--"
"Tall?"
"Yes, above the medium, but he stooped a little, like a cat, sort of
stretched to the ground like an animal, when he hurried along after the
girl in front of me."
Doctor Gordon struck the horse with his whip, and he broke into a
gallop. "We are almost home," said he. "I shall have to leave you with
slight ceremony. I have to go out again immediately."
Doctor Gordon had hardly finished speaking before they drew up in
front of a white house on the left of the road. "Get out," he said
peremptorily to James. The front door opened, and a parallelogram of
lighted interior became visible. In this expanse of light stood a tall
woman's figure. "Clara, this is the new doctor," called