I don't think that Dr. Morton ever really got over the loss of his
fur-lined overcoat. You see, it gave him a tone, making many a suffering
household feel quite chirpy and consoled only to see him getting
carefully out of his gig, and laying back the lapels so as to show the
best pieces of fur. But he was never the same man in plain tweed, even
when he took to a high velvet collar. People had not the old confidence.
He had two favorite methods of treatment--leeches and fly-blisters--and
when he began to leech the blister people and blister the leech people,
all felt that the end was near.
So Mr. Liddesdale persuaded him to sell his practice while he had one to
sell--the stock of leeches and Spanish flies being taken at a valuation.
So there came a young doctor to Edam, and his name was Dr. Weir Douglas.
At first it was feared that he would not be a success, because he went
about in gray tweeds and a straw hat. Worse than all, he made 84 in the
cricket match against Lockermaben. This showed how little serious he
could be, and how little he had to do in his profession. Dr. Morton was
often called out of church twice on the same Sunday, and though
everybody knew that he kept a boy for the purpose, yet, after all, the
summons might be real. No one could tell. At any rate it waked up a
sleepy congregation better than peppermint drops, and people whispered
that it must be Sandy Paterson's wife, or that loon of Jock Malcolm's
who was always climbing and coming to grief.
However, when Jock Malcolm did fall from the scaffolding of the
Established Church (then being repaired parsimoniously by reluctant
heritors) Dr. Weir Douglas saved the boy's life by carrying him to his
own house across the way, and, after setting the shoulder, sent to ask
Miss Thomasina Morton to come over and nurse Master Jock Malcolm.
Then the whole village of Edam began to respect Dr. Morton, calling him
"cunning old rascal," and other terms of admiration. Indeed, they
respected him for the first time in their lives. Had he not got a good
price for his practice, and would not Thomasina do the rest? Indeed, the
marriage of Thomasina and Dr. Weir Douglas was regarded on all hands as
a settled thing. Any one else in Edam (except perhaps our Hugh John)
would have been considered fair game for jest, and congratulated fifty
times in a day. But somehow Dr. Weir Douglas did not look the kind of
man to be too familiar with, even in a straw hat and gray tweeds--just
as no one would take a liberty with our Hugh John in a clown's dress at
a fancy ball, if the mind of man can conceive such a thing. Even there,
he would probably be found in a retired corner with the prettiest girl
(if she were tall and pale and willowy), instructing her on the chances
of Siam becoming a second Japan, the resurrection of the Further East,
the probability of a Russian Anarchist Republic, and other topics
especially adapted for a ball-room. Whereas Sir Toady--but perhaps the
less said about that the better. If he had not told at least five girls
that they were the prettiest in the room, the young man would have felt
that he had thrown away his chances, an accident against which he
carefully guarded himself.
But to return to the nursing of Master Jock Malcolm--now become so
important and necessary a link in the chain of events. Edam gave
Thomasina twenty-four hours to bring the young doctor to his knees. But
Dr. Weir Douglas spoiled all calculations by charging his coachman's
wife to look after the comfort of Miss Morton, and taking up his own
quarters for the time being at the Edam Arms, opposite!
The entire village agreed that this was not playing the game, and as for
Thomasina, she felt that never in the world had there been such a
reprobate. She placed tracts in his way. She scattered them all about
the house, and neglected her patient to think out plans for wrestling
with this stiff-necked and rebellious young man.
In the meantime, however, Dr. Weir Douglas began to gain on Edam.
Certainly he made a wonderful cure of Jock Malcolm, junior--a young
rascal who deserved no such spoiling as he was receiving. He even asked
the advice and assistance of his distinguished colleague Dr. Morton,
making it a favor that in the meantime he should return to the house
which had been his own for so many years. It was really much too large
for a bachelor, and Dr. Weir Douglas would consider it a favor to have
it taken care of. He himself was perfectly comfortable at the Edam
Arms. This, however, could not last for ever.
The whole village was more certain than ever that Thomasina and he were
"going to make a match of it." It was just at this critical time that
Hugh John came home on holiday for Christmas and New Year.
I was exceedingly interested to see how these two would get on--the
Doctor and Hugh John, I mean. Because my brother is by no means
universally amiable, and the new arrival, for all his generosity,
carried a good deal of "side"--or at least what seemed so to the Edam
people. They did not understand his "antiseptics," the boiling of his
medical scissors, his multipled sprayings, and _minima_ of medicines. A
whacking black draught, and a fly-blister the size of the _Scotsman_
newspaper, were the popular idea of what a real doctor ought to
prescribe. Who would pay a man just to come and look at them? Certainly
not the people of Edam.
I was present when Hugh John and Dr. Weir Douglas met for the first
time. In fact, I made the introduction. I was interested to see what Dr.
Douglas would make of Hugh John. For if he treated him like a schoolboy,
all was over.
It was in our drawing-room. Somebody had had his little afternoon nap
over Froude's _History of England_--volume eight. Now if you ask
Somebody how long Somebody has slept, Somebody will answer that Somebody
_may_ just have dropped off for five minutes. The Doctor had come in to
call socially. You see, I had met him at the Tennis Club. Well, Somebody
was quite pleased with him because he had read "Froude," and for a while
he did not notice the big, gray-eyed boy on the window-seat who had
risen at his entrance and then as quietly sat down again.