I joined this. I joined
that. I pushed in every direction. I took up athletics
again much to the advantage of my health, and found that
the practice benefited as well as I. My cricket form for
the season has been fair, with an average of about 20
with the bat and 9 with the ball.
It must be allowed, however, that this system of
sallying out for my patients and leaving my consulting
room empty might be less successful if it were not for my
treasure of a housekeeper. She is a marvel of
discretion, and the way in which she perjures her soul
for the sake of the practice is a constant weight upon my
conscience. She is a tall, thin woman, with a grave face
and an impressive manner. Her standard fiction, implied
rather than said (with an air as if it were so
universally known that it would be absurd to put it into
words) is, that I am so pressed by the needs of my
enormous practice, that any one wishing to consult me
must make their appointment very exactly and a long time
in advance.
"Dear me, now!" she says to some applicant.
He's been hurried off again. If you'd been here half-an-
hour ago he might have given you a minute. I never saw
such a thing" (confidentially). "Between you and me I
don't think he can last at it long. He's bound to break
down. But come in, and I'll do all I can for you."
Then, having carefully fastened the patient up in the
consulting room, she goes to little Paul.
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