AN EVIL PROPHECY BEGINS TO BEAR FRUIT
Leonora and Mrs. Kimball accompanied Dr. Earl to the meeting of the
medical society, and if he had some doubts whether or not she would be
able to follow his discourse perfectly, he had none whatever as to his
own pride and pleasure in her dainty loveliness. She was gowned in
white, and the season's styles were particularly becoming to her
graceful and well-rounded figure. Her radiant face with its sensitive
coloring resembled the delicate glow of one of those rare Sevres vases
of the Empire Period.
She appreciated the compliment of the invitation, as people always
appreciate the compliment of being invited to distinguished gatherings
where the subjects of discussion are likely to be much beyond their
range of knowledge or understanding.
There was a large attendance, for while many members of the profession
had come from idle curiosity, most of those present were interested in
the views of any man of standing who might throw new light upon the
successful application of either medical or surgical remedies.
Whatever criticisms may be passed upon individual practitioners, or
however many Bourbons may exist in the fraternity, yet it must be
apparent to the student of such matters that nowhere in the world does
as large a percentage of the medical or surgical profession adopt new
and improved methods of treatment of the maimed and the ill as in the
United States. And nowhere in the world are such new and improved
methods applied with anything like the aptness or skill as by American
doctors of medicine or surgery.
The old school, the newer school, the newest school of legally
recognized practitioners were there in force, as well as numbers of
those who were effecting remarkable cures without any special sanction
of law for their methods.
Modestly and earnestly, Dr. Earl discussed the subject that had been
assigned him, amplifying as much as his time would permit, and
occasionally citing authorities bound to command respectful attention
from scientific minds.
He was aware that he had the sympathy of most of his audience, and he
was just as fully conscious of the hostility of Drs. Morris, Tower,
Hershell, Bainbridge and two or three more of those who believed with
something approaching fanaticism that all physicians and surgeons must
adhere strictly to what they denominated "standard methods."
While Leonora could not comprehend the larger significance of his
discourse, it gratified her pride and pleased her vanity that her
fiancee was a man who could obtain such a hearing from the medical
profession. The discussion that followed the address was animated and
intelligent, and if the malcontents had intended any discourtesy to Dr.
Earl their plans went awry.
Dr. Earl found himself plunged deeper and deeper every day in the
seemingly innumerable duties that crowded upon him. Summer came with
tropical heat, but feeling that he had already enjoyed a long vacation,
he made no plans, save to take his week-ends out of town, and prepared
to keep office hours all summer.
Early in July, Leonora and her mother went to Bar Harbor and the
Ramseys to Newport. Frank had gone West in May. He would have missed
them had he possessed a free moment, but the first of August found him
as busy as ever, in spite of the fact that the city was deserted by the
fashionable world. Sickness has fashions of its own, and the fame he had
achieved as "the surgeon who cures without operating," brought him not a
few calls from those who had nothing to commend them save their
suffering and their faith. Every doctor worthy the name has a set of
books kept only by his recording angel, and Earl's invisible guardian
made many entries that summer, and there were times when even the
insistence of Leonora could not make him feel willing to leave those who
seemed so wholly dependent upon his presence for their physical welfare.
Now and then, in spite of his all-absorbing work, there came to his
sensitive consciousness a feeling of foreboding and dread that he could
not explain, save by some subtle law of suggestion, as he recalled half
in mirth and half in seriousness the dark prophecies of the astrologist
at the suffrage ball. He had suspected his brother Frank, and when he
learned that the seeress was Miss Renner, that suspicion had been
confirmed; Frank might have given her the date of Leonora's birthday,
but he had nothing to do with the warning she had given him that
something would happen within the next twenty-four hours which would
have a bearing on his whole career. Within two hours he had treated
little Alice Bell, and out of that event had grown his more intimate
acquaintance with Silvia, and the marked hostility of Dr. Morris. The
child was doing as well as could be expected, but he was greatly
disturbed over her condition, and was building up her general health in
the hope of overcoming the disease.
He had asked Miss Renner one or two questions, but she had evaded him,
and while he had thought of calling on her and asking for the promised
horoscope, which she did not send, the idea seemed absurd, and he had no
time to carry it out.
On the fourth of August he received a summons to come to Magnolia,
Massachusetts, to attend a former patient who was spending the summer
there, and he left New York, intending to remain a week.
His movements had become a matter of interest to the ubiquitous
newspaper reporter, and as the dog-days in New York were not prolific
in startling items, the fact of his being sent for to attend a prominent
New York man at Magnolia was seized upon and made into a fairly readable
first page news story.
He arranged for the care of his patients, saw the Bells and told them of
his intended absence, and spent some time talking with the frail little
child who had become greatly attached to him. As he rose to go, he
turned to the couch once more. "What shall I send you from Boston,
little Miss Alice?" he said kindly, and the girl replied in true child
fashion, "Candy." He shook his head. "You know I don't approve of much
candy for small girls; but you shall have something better," he said,
"you may be sure I won't forget," and with another good-by he was gone.
He took the midnight train for Boston, and his patient's motor car was
waiting for him when he arrived there.
Perhaps it was the excitement of thinking what the "something better"
could be that kept Alice Bell awake that night; whatever it was, when
Silvia Holland saw her the next morning her heart sank. She had a
feeling that she was in some way responsible for the child also, and
that she was still Dr. Earl's assistant. She watched her while she
talked to Mrs. Bell, and suggested, in a tentative way, that Mrs. Bell
should go to some quiet country place for a month, but the woman shook
her head.
"I cannot leave the city, now," she said. "I have a great quantity of
sewing that must be done for Miss Lanier's wedding in September."
"Couldn't you take it along?" asked Silvia.
"No," she said quietly, but decidedly. "Some of the things she wants
fitted, and I have said I would be here any time she wanted to run into
town. Besides, there are other reasons why I cannot go away now." She
controlled herself with an effort. "I can never tell you, Miss Holland,
how thankful I am for the work you have brought my way. You can't
understand, no woman who has never been anxious to know how she was
going to get the rent can understand what a blessing it is to be
independent! You are doing great things for all women, Miss Holland, and
not forgetting individual women as some people would, but _do_ try to
make girls understand that they can never be free so long as they are
dependent on somebody else for their bread and butter."
Silvia flushed. "You're not fretting because of the paltry little sum I
advanced for your rent, are you?" she said. "I thought we were friends,
and such things should not be spoken of between friends."
The woman turned to her with a face in which gratitude and some great
sorrow were contending emotions, and caught her hands and held them
tight.
"No," she said, "I don't mind being under obligations to you; I'm almost
glad to be, for the sake of knowing such a woman. You can do a kindness
without making it a burden; there are people who pay a debt as if they
were doing you a favor. The only thing I mind is that I am not more
worthy of all you have done for me."
Silvia put her hands on the other woman's shoulders. "Don't talk to me
of unworthiness," she said. "You are a brave woman and a devoted mother;
it is one of the crimes of civilization that you should lack for any
creature comforts, and you shall not any more. You shall earn what you
need yourself, and this fall I intend to start a class of girls in
domestic economy, and you shall teach them how to make these pretty
things you fashion so exquisitely."
An indescribable look of pain and rebellion passed over Mrs. Bell's
face, and she turned away from Silvia, with a quick gesture of
renunciation.
"In the meantime," Silvia went on, feeling that the time had not come to
seek any further confidence, "I am going to borrow Alice. I want to take
her up to Nutwood for a week or two, and as I'm going this noon, suppose
you gather her things together, and I'll take her right along."
The little girl gave a cry of joy, and then her face dropped. "But,
mamma," she said, "will I miss my present from Dr. Earl?"
Her mother smiled and explained that the doctor had promised to send
Allie "something better than candy" from Boston, where he had gone the
night before. "I will forward it," she said; "you can trust mother for
that."
"He has been very good to you, hasn't he?" said Silvia absently,
thinking of him once more as she had seen him first, as he bent over the
child, the sleeves rolled back from his powerful white arms while he
bathed the matted locks and set the broken leg.
"He has that," said the woman laconically. "I'm glad to have Allie go
with you, for she would miss him; he said he wouldn't be back for a
week. Now be a good girl, Allie, and do just as Miss Holland tells you,
and you will write mother a little letter every day, and mother will
write to you." She flung her arms about the child in a sudden passion of
emotion, but the eyes that looked into Silvia's as she took her hand
were dry and wretched.
"I wish you could tell me all about it," Silvia said impulsively.
"I shall, soon," she answered; "unless Fate turns kind for once, I shall
tell you all, soon, very soon."