The Whole Family | Page 7

don't remember just whether Mrs.
Temple told my mother-in-law you were homoeopaths or allopaths."
"Well," I said, "that depends. I rather think we are homoeopaths of a
low-potency type." My neighbor's face confessed a certain
disappointment. "But we are not bigoted, even in the article of
appreciable doses. Our own family doctor in our old place always
advised us, in stress of absence from him, to get the best doctor
wherever we happened to be, so far as we could make him out, and not
mind what school he was of. I suppose we have been treated by as
many allopaths as homoeopaths, but we're rather a healthy family, and
put it all together we have not been treated a great deal by either."
Mr. Talbert looked relieved. "Oh, then you will have Dr. Denbigh. He
puts your rule the other way, and gets the best patient he can, no matter
whether he is a homoeopath or an allopath. We have him, in all our
branches; he is the best doctor in Eastridge, and he is the best man. I
want you to know him, and you can't know a doctor the way you ought
to, unless he's your family physician."
"You're quite right, I think, but that's a matter I should have to leave
two-thirds of to my wife: women are two-thirds of the patients in every
healthy family, and they ought to have the ruling voice about the
doctor." We had formed the habit already of laughing at any
appearance of joke in each other, and my neighbor now rolled his large

head in mirth, and said:
"That's so, I guess. But I guess there won't be any trouble about Mrs.
Temple's vote when she sees Denbigh. His specialty is the capture of
sensible women. They all swear by him. You met him, didn't you, at
my office, the other day?"
"Oh yes, and I liked him so much that I wished I was sick on the spot!"
"That's good!" my neighbor said, joyfully.
"Well, you could meet the doctor there almost any afternoon of the
week, toward closing-up hours, and almost any evening at our house
here, when he isn't off on duty. It's a generally understood thing that if
he isn't at home, or making a professional visit, he's at one place or the
other. The farmers round stop for him with their buggies, when they're
in a hurry, and half our calls over the 'phone are for Dr. Denbigh. The
fact is he likes to talk, and if there's any sort of man that I like to talk
with better than another, it's a doctor. I never knew one yet that didn't
say something worth while within five minutes' time. Then, you know
that you can be free with them, be yourself, and that's always worth
while, whether you're worth while yourself or not. You can say just
what you think about anybody or anything, and you know it won't go
farther. You may not be a patient, but they've always got their
Hippocratic oath with them, and they're safe. That so?"
My neighbor wished the pleasure of my explicit assent; my tacit assent
he must have read in my smile. "Yes," I said, "and they're always so
tolerant and compassionate. I don't want to say anything against the
reverend clergy; they're oftener saints upon earth than we allow; but a
doctor is more solid comfort; he seems to understand you
exponentially."
"That's it! You've hit it! He's seen lots of other cases like yours, and
next to a man's feeling that he's a peculiar sufferer, he likes to know
that there are other fellows in the same box."
We both laughed at this; it was, in fact, a joke we were the joint authors
of.
"Well, we don't often talk about my ailments; I haven't got a great
many; and generally we get on some abstract topic. Just now we're
running the question of female education, perhaps because it's
impersonal, and we can both treat of it without prejudice."
"The doctor isn't married, I believe?"

"He's a widower of long standing, and that's the best kind of doctor to
have: then he's a kind of a bachelor with practical wisdom added. You
see, I've always had the idea that women, beginning with little girls and
ending with grandmothers, ought to be brought up as nearly like their
brothers as can be--that is, if they are to be the wives of other women's
brothers. It don't so much matter how an old maid is brought up, but
you can't have her destiny in view, though I believe if an old maid
could be brought up more like an old bachelor she would be more
comfortable to herself, anyway."
"And what does Dr. Denbigh say?"
"Well, you must