The Girl at Cobhurst | Page 3

don't stay too long."
"In any case I shall be back before dark," she said, and with a kiss on
his forehead she left him.
Dr. Tolbridge looked into the fire and considered.
"Ought I to let her go?" he asked himself. This question, mingled with
various thoughts and recollections of former experiences with Miss
Panney, occupied the doctor's mind until he heard the swift rolling of
the dog-cart wheels as they passed his window. Then he arose, put on
his slippers, drew up the soft cushioned sofa, and lay down for a nap.
In about half an hour he was aroused by the announcement that Miss
Bannister had called to see him.

Long practice in that sort of thing made him wake in an instant, and the
young lady who was ushered into the study had no idea that she had
disturbed the nap of a tired man. She was a very pretty girl,
handsomely dressed; she had large blue eyes, and a very gentle and
sweet expression, tinged, however, by an anxious sadness.
"Who is sick, Miss Dora?" asked the doctor, quickly, as he shook hands
with her.
She did not seem to understand him. "Nobody," she said. "That is, I
have come to see you about myself."
"Oh," said he, "pray take a seat. I imagined from your face," he
continued, with a smile, "that some one of your family was in desperate
need of a doctor."
"No," said she, "it is I. For a long time I have thought of consulting you,
and to-day I felt I must come."
"And what is the matter?" he asked.
"Doctor," said she, a tear forcing itself into each of her beautiful eyes,
"I believe I am losing my mind."
"Indeed," said the doctor; "and how is your general health?"
"Oh, that's all right," answered Miss Dora. "I do not think there is the
least thing the matter with me that way. It is all my mind. It has been
failing me for a good while."
"How?" he asked. "What are the symptoms?"
"Oh, there are ever so many of them," she said; "I can't think of them
all. I have lost all interest in everything in this world. You remember
how much interest I used to take in things?"
"Indeed I do," said he.
"The world is getting to be all a blank to me," she said; "everything is

blank."
"Your meals?" he asked.
"No," she said. "Of course I must eat to live."
"And sleep?"
"Oh, I sleep well enough. Indeed, I wish I could sleep all the time, so
that I could not know how the world--at least its pleasures and
affections--are passing away from me. All this is dreadful, doctor, when
you come to think of it. I have thought and thought and thought about it,
until it has become perfectly plain to me that I am losing my mind."
Dr. Tolbridge looked into the fire.
"Well," said he, presently, "I am glad to hear it."
Miss Dora sprang to her feet.
"Oh, sit down," said he, "and let me explain myself. My advice is, if
you lose your mind, don't mind the loss. It really will do you good.
That sounds hard and cruel, doesn't it? But wait a bit. It often happens
that the minds of young people are like their first teeth--what are called
milk teeth, you know. These minds and these teeth do very well for a
time, but after a while they become unable to perform the services
which will be demanded of them, and they are shed, or at least they
ought to be. Sometimes, of course, they have to be extracted."
"Nonsense, doctor," said the young lady, smiling in spite of herself,
"you cannot extract a mind."
"Well, perhaps not exactly that," he answered, "but we can help it to be
absorbed and to disappear, and so make a way for the strong, vigorous
mind of maturity, which is certain to succeed it. All this has happened
and is happening to you, Miss Dora. You have lost your milk mind, and
the sooner it is gone the better. You will be delighted with the one that
succeeds it. Now then, can you give me an idea about how angry you

are?"
"I am not angry at all," she replied, "but I feel humiliated. You think
my mental sufferings are all fanciful."
"Oh, no," said the doctor; "to continue the dental simile, they are the
last aches of your youthful mentality, forced to make way for the
intellect of a woman."
Miss Bannister looked out of the window for a few moments.
"Doctor," she then said, "I do not believe there is any one else who
knows me, who would tell me that I have the mind of a child."
"Oh, no," replied