"Has Dr. Knox come in, Mr. Dockett?"
Mr. Dockett, lounging over the counter to tease the dog, brought himself
straight with a jerk, and faced his master, Mr. Tamlyn.
"Not yet, sir."
"When he comes in, ask him if he'll be so kind as step to me in the
dining-room."
Mr. Tamlyn shut the surgery-door, and the apprentice whistled to the
dog, which had made its escape. Presently Dr. Knox came across the
court-yard and received the message.
"Mr. Tamlyn wants you, sir, please. He is in the dining-room."
"Have you nothing to do, Dockett? Just set on and clean those scales."
The dining-room looked out on the garden and on the playing fountain. It
was one of the prettiest rooms in Lefford; with white-and-gold papered
walls, and mirrors, and a new carpet. Mr. Tamlyn liked to have things
nice at home, and screwed the money out of the capital put by for
Bertie. He sat at the table before some account-books.
"Sit down, Arnold," he said, taking off his spectacles. "I have some
news for you: I hope it won't put you out too much."
It did put Dr. Knox out very considerably, and it surprised him
even more. For some time past now he had been cherishing a private
expectation that Mr. Tamlyn would be taking him into partnership, giving
him probably a small share only at first. Of all things it seemed the
most likely to Dr. Knox: and, wanting in self-assertion though he was,
it seemed to him that it would be a _right_ thing to do. Mr. Tamlyn
had no one to succeed him: and all the best part of his practice was
formerly Mr. Knox's. Had Arnold only been a little older when his father
died, he should have succeeded to it himself: there would have been
little chance of Mr. Tamlyn's getting any of it. In justice, then, if
Mr. Tamlyn now, or later, took a partner at all, it ought to be Arnold.
But for looking forward to this, Dr. Knox had never stayed on all this
time at the paltry salary paid him, and worked himself nearly to a
skeleton. As old Tamlyn talked, he listened as one in a dream, and he
learnt that his own day-dream was over.
Old Tamlyn was about to take a partner: some gentleman from London, a
Mr. Shuttleworth. Mr. Shuttleworth was seeking a country practice, and
would bring in three thousand pounds. Arnold's services would only be
required to the end of the year, as Mr. Shuttleworth would join on the
first of January.
"There won't be room for three of us, Arnold--and Dockett will be coming
on," said Mr. Tamlyn. "Besides, at your age, and with your talents, you
ought to be doing something better for yourself. Don't you see that you
ought?"
"I have seen it for some time. But--the truth is," added Arnold, "though
I hardly like to own to it now, I have been cherishing a hope of this
kind for myself. I thought, Mr. Tamlyn, you might some time offer it to
me."
"And so I would, Arnold, and there's no one I should like to take as
partner half so well as yourself, but you have not the necessary funds,"
said the surgeon with eagerness. "I see what you are thinking,
Arnold--that I might have taken you without premium: but I must think of
my poor boy. Shuttleworth brings in three thousand: I would have taken
you with two."
"I could not bring in two hundred, let alone two thousand," said Dr.
Knox.
"There's where it is. To tell you the truth, Arnold, I am getting tired
of work; don't seem so much up to it as I was. Whoever comes in will
have to do more even than you have done, and of course will expect to
take at least a half-share of the yearly profits. I should not put by
much then: I could not alter my style of living, you know, or put down
the carriages and horses, or anything of that sort: and I must save for
poor Bertie. A sum of three thousand pounds means three thousand to me."
"Are the arrangements fully made?" asked Dr. Knox.
"Yes. Mr. Shuttleworth came down to Lefford yesterday, and has been
going into the books with me this morning. And, by the way, Arnold, I
hope you will meet him here at dinner to-night. I should not a bit
wonder, either, but he might tell you of some opening for yourself: he
seems to know most of the chief medical men in London. He is selling a
good practice of his own. It is his health that obliges him to come to
the country."
"I hope you will suit one another," said Dr. Knox; for he knew that it
was not every one who could get on with fidgety old Tamlyn.
"We are to give it a six months' trial," said Tamlyn. "He would not bind
himself without that. At the end of the six months, if both parties are
not satisfied, we cancel the agreement: he withdraws his money, and I am
at liberty to take a fresh partner. For that half-year's services he
will receive his half-share of profits: which of course is only fair.
You see I tell you all, Arnold."
Dr. Knox dined with them, and found the new man a very pleasant fellow,
but quite as old as Tamlyn. He could not help wondering how he would
relish the parish work, and said so in a whisper to Mr. Tamlyn while
Shuttleworth was talking to Bertie.
"Oh, he thinks it will be exercise for him," replied the surgeon. "And
Dockett will be coming on, you know."
It was a dark night, the beginning of November, wet and splashy. Mrs.
Knox had a soirée at Rose Villa; and when the doctor reached home he
met the company coming forth with cloaks and lanterns and clogs.
"Oh, it's you, Arnold, is it!" cried Mrs. Knox. "Could you not have come
home for my evening? Two of the whist-tables had to play dummy: we had
some disappointments."
"I stayed to dine with Mr. Tamlyn," said Arnold.
Sitting together over the fire, he and she alone, Mrs. Knox asked him
whether he would not give her a hundred pounds a-year for his board,
instead of seventy-five. Which was uncommonly cool, considering what he
paid for her besides in housekeeping bills. Upon which, Arnold told her
he should not be with her beyond the close of the year: he was going to
leave Lefford. For a minute, it struck her dumb.
"Good Heavens, Arnold, how am I to keep the house on without your help?
I must say you have no consideration. Leave Lefford!"
"Mr. Tamlyn has given me notice," replied Arnold. "He is taking a
partner."
"But--I just ask you--how am I to pay my way?"
"It seems to me that your income is quite sufficient for that, mother.
If not--perhaps--if I may suggest it--you might put down the
pony-chaise."
Mrs. Knox shrieked out that he was a cruel man. Arnold, who never cared
to stand scenes, lighted his candle and went up to bed.
Shuttleworth had taken rather a fancy to Dr. Knox; perhaps he
remembered, too, that he was turning him adrift. Anyway, he bestirred
himself, and got him appointed to a medical post in London, where Arnold
would receive two hundred a-year, and his board.
"I presume you know that I am about to run away, Miss Carey," said Dr.
Knox, hastening up to join her one Sunday evening when they were coming
out of church at Lefford.
"As if every one did not know that!" cried Mina. "Where's mamma, Arnold?
and Lotty?"
"They are behind, talking to the Parkers."
The Parkers were great friends of Mina's, so she ran back. The doctor
and Janet walked slowly on.
"You will be glad to leave, sir," said Janet, in her humble fashion.
"Things have not been very comfortable for you at home--and I hear you
are taking a much better post."
"I shall be sorry to leave for one thing--that is, because I fear things
may be more uncomfortable for you," he spoke out bravely. "What Rose
Villa will be when all restraint is taken from the children, and with
other undesirable things, I don't like to imagine."
"I shall do very well," said Janet, meekly.
"I wonder you put up with it," he exclaimed. "You might be ten thousand
times better and happier elsewhere."
"But I fear to change: I have no one to recommend me or to look out for
me, you know."
"There's that lady I've heard you speak of--your aunt, Miss Cattledon."
"I could not think of troubling her. My mother's family do not care to
take much notice of me. They thought my father was not my mother's equal
in point of family, and when she married him, they turned her off, as it
were. No, sir, I have only myself to look to."
"A great many of us are in the same case," he said. "Myself, for
instance. I have been indulging I don't know what day-dreams for some
time past: one of them that Mr. Tamlyn would give me a share in his
practice: and--and there were others to follow in due course. Vain
dreams all, and knocked on the head now."
"You will be sure to get on," said Janet.
"Do you think so?" he asked very softly, looking down into Janet's nice
eyes by the gaslight in the road.
"At least, I hope you will."
"Well, I shall try for it."
"Arnold!--come back, Arnold; I want you to give me your arm up the
hill," called out Mrs. Knox.
Dr. Knox had to enter on his new situation at quarter-day, the
twenty-fifth of December; so he went up to London on Christmas-Eve.
Which was no end of a blow to old Tamlyn, as it left all the work on his
own shoulders for a week.