The Trial | Page 7

mistaken if
there will not be another before morning.'
'Who, papa?' asked Mary.
'Those wretched Martins, in Lower Pond Buildings, are the worst. No
wonder, living in voluntary filth; but it is all over the street-- will be all
over the town unless there's some special mercy on the place.'
'But how has it grown so bad,' said Ethel, 'without our having even
heard of it!'
'Why--partly I take shame to myself--this business of Hector and
Blanche kept Spencer and me away last dispensary day; and partly it
was that young coxcomb, Henry Ward, thought it not worth while to
trouble me about a simple epidemic. Simple epidemic indeed!' repeated
Dr. May, changing his tone from ironical mimicry to hot indignation. 'I
hope he will be gratified with its simplicity! I wonder how long he
would have gone on if it had not laid hold on him.'
'You don't mean that he has it?'

'I do. It will give him a practical lesson in simple epidemics.'
'And Henry Ward has it!' repeated Mary, looking so much dismayed
that her father laughed, saying--
'What, Mary thinks when it comes to fevers being so audacious as to
lay hold of the doctors, it is time that they should be put a stop to.'
'He seems to have petted it and made much of it,' said Ethel; 'so no
wonder! What could have possessed him?'
'Just this, Ethel; and it is only human nature after all. This young lad
comes down, as Master Tom will do some day, full of his lectures and
his hospitals, and is nettled and displeased to find his father content to
have Spencer or me called in the instant anything serious is the matter.'
'But you are a physician, papa,' said Mary.
'No matter for that, to Mr. Henry I'm an old fogie, and depend upon it,
if it were only the giving a dose of salts, he would like to have the case
to himself. These poor creatures were parish patients, and I don't mean
that his treatment was amiss. Spencer is right, it was an atmosphere
where there was no saving anyone, but if he had not been so delighted
with his own way, and I had known what was going on, I'd have got the
Guardians and the Town Council and routed out the place. Seventeen
cases, and most of them the worst form!'
'But what was Mr. Ward about?
'"Says I to myself, here's a lesson for me; This man's but a picture of
what I shall be,"
'when Master Tom gets the upper hand of me,' returned Dr. May. 'Poor
Ward, who has run to me in all his difficulties these thirty years, didn't
like it at all; but Mr. Henry was so confident with his simple epidemic,
and had got him in such order, that he durst not speak.'
'And what brought it to light at last?'

'Everything at once. First the clerics go to see about the family where
the infant died, and report to Spencer; he comes after me, and we start
to reconnoitre. Then I am called in to see Shearman's daughter--a very
ugly case that--and coming out I meet poor Ward himself, wanting me
to see Henry, and there's the other boy sickening too. Then I went down
and saw all those cases in the Lower Ponds, and have been running
about the town ever since to try what can be done, hunting up nurses,
whom I can't get, stirring dishes of skim milk, trying to get the funerals
over to-morrow morning by daybreak. I declare I have hardly a leg to
stand on.'
'Where was Dr. Spencer?'
'I've nearly quarrelled with Spencer. Oh! he is in high feather! he will
have it that the fever rose up bodily, like Kuhleborn, out of that
unhappy drain he is always worrying about, when it is a regular case of
scarlet fever, brought in by a girl at home from service; but he will have
it that his theory is proved. Then I meant him to keep clear of it. He has
always been liable to malaria and all that sort of thing, and has not
strength for an illness. I told him to mind the ordinary practice for me;
and what do I find him doing the next thing, but operating upon one of
the worst throats he could find! I told him he was as bad as young
Ward; I hate his irregular practice. I'll tell you what,' he said,
vindictively, as if gratified to have what must obey him, 'you shall all
go off to Cocksmoor to-morrow morning at seven o'clock.'
'You forget that we two have had it,' said Mary.
'Which of you?'
'All down to Blanche.'
'Never mind for that. I shall have enough to do without