Whether it was that Dr. Dill expended all the benevolence of his
disposition in the course of his practice, and came home utterly
exhausted, but so it was, that his family never saw him in those moods
of blandness which he invariably appeared in to his patients. In fact,
however loaded he went forth with these wares of a morning, he disposed
of every item of his stock before he got back at night; and when poor
Mrs. Dill heard, as she from time to time did hear, of the doctor's
gentleness, his kindness in suffering, his beautiful and touching
sympathy with sorrow, she listened with the same sort of semi-stupid
astonishment she would have felt on hearing some one eulogizing the
climate of Ireland, and going rapturous about the blue sky and the
glorious sunshine. Unhappy little woman, she only saw him in his dark
days of cloud and rain, and she never came into his presence except in a
sort of moral mackintosh made for the worst weather.
The doctor's family consisted of seven children, but our concern is only
with the two eldest,--a son and a daughter. Tom was two years younger
than his sister, who, at this period of our story, was verging on
nineteen. He was an awkward, ungainly youth, large-jointed, but weakly,
with a sandy red head and much-freckled face, just such a disparaging
counterpart of his sister as a coarse American piracy often presents of
one of our well-printed, richly papered English editions. “It was all
there,” but all unseemly, ungraceful, undignified; for Polly Dill was
pretty. Her hair was auburn, her eyes a deep hazel, and her skin a
marvel of transparent whiteness. You would never have hesitated to call
her a very pretty girl if you had not seen her brother, but, having
seen him, all the traits of her good looks suffered in the same way that
Grisi's “Norma” does from the horrid recollection of Paul Bedford's.
After all, the resemblance went very little further than this
“travestie,” for while he was a slow, heavy-witted, loutish creature,
with low tastes and low ambitions, she was a clever, intelligent girl,
very eagerly intent on making something of her advantages. Though the
doctor was a general practitioner, and had a shop, which he called
“Surgery,” in the village, he was received at the great houses in a sort
of half-intimate, half-patronizing fashion; as one, in short, with whom
it was not necessary to be formal, but it might become very inconvenient
to have a coldness. These were very sorry credentials for acceptance,
but he made no objection to them.
A few, however, of the “neighbors”--it would be ungenerous to inquire
the motive, for in this world of ours it is just as well to regard
one's five-pound note as convertible into five gold sovereigns, and not
speculate as to the kind of rags it is made of--were pleased to notice
Miss Dill, and occasionally invite her to their larger gatherings, so
that she not only gained opportunities of cultivating her social gifts,
but, what is often a greater spur to ambition, of comparing them with
those of others.
Now this same measuring process, if only conducted without any envy or
ungenerous rivalry, is not without its advantage. Polly Dill made it
really profitable. I will not presume to say that, in her heart
of hearts, she did not envy the social accidents that gave others
precedence before her, but into her heart of hearts neither you nor
I have any claim to enter. Enough that we know nothing in her outward
conduct or bearing revealed such a sentiment. As little did she maintain
her position by flattery, which many in her ambiguous station would have
relied upon as a stronghold. No; Polly followed a very simple policy,
which was all the more successful that it never seemed to be a policy at
all. She never in any way attracted towards her the attentions of those
men who, in the marriageable market, were looked on as the choice lots;
squires in possession, elder sons, and favorite nephews, she regarded
as so much forbidden fruit. It was a lottery in which she never took a
ticket It is incredible how much kindly notice and favorable recognition
accrued to her from this line.
We all know how pleasant it is to be next to the man at a promiscuous
dinner who never eats turtle nor cares for “Cliquot;” and in the world
at large there are people who represent the calabash and the champagne.
Then Polly played well, but was quite as ready to play as to dance. She
sang prettily, too, and had not the slightest objection that one of her
simple ballads should be the foil to a grand performance of some young
lady, whose artistic agonies rivalled Alboni's. So cleverly did Polly
do all this, that even her father could not discover the secret of her
success; and though he saw “his little girl” as he called her, more and
more sought after and invited, he continued to be persuaded that all
this favoritism was only the reflex of his own popularity. How, then,
could mere acquaintances ever suspect what to the eye of those nearer
and closer was so inscrutable?
Polly Dill rode very well and very fearlessly, and occasionally was
assisted to “a mount” by some country gentleman, who combined gallantry
with profit, and knew that the horse he lent could never be seen
to greater advantage. Yet, even in this, she avoided display, quite
satisfied, as it seemed, to enjoy herself thoroughly, and not attract
any notice that could be avoided. Indeed, she never tried for “a place,”
but rather attached herself to some of the older and heavier weights,
who grew to believe that they were especially in charge of her, and
nothing was more common, at the end of a hard run, than to hear such
self-gratulations as, “I think I took great care of you, Miss Dill?”
“Eh, Miss Polly! you see I'm not such a bad leader!” and so on.
Such was the doctor's “little girl,” whom I am about to present to
my readers under another aspect. She is at home, dressed in a neatly
fitting but very simple cotton dress, her hair in two plain bands, and
she is seated at a table, at the opposite of which lounges her brother
Tom with an air of dogged and sleepy indolence, which extends from his
ill-trimmed hair to his ill-buttoned waistcoat.
“Never mind it to-day, Polly,” said he, with a yawn. “I've been up all
night, and have no head for work. There's a good girl, let's have a chat
instead.”
“Impossible, Tom,” said she, calmly, but with decision. “To-day is
the third. You have only three weeks now and two days before your
examination. We have all the bones and ligaments to go over again, and
the whole vascular system. You 've forgotten every word of Harrison.”
“It does n't signify, Polly. They never take a fellow on anything but
two arteries for the navy. Grove told me so.”
“Grove is an ass, and got plucked twice. It is a perfect disgrace to
quote him.”
“Well, I only wish I may do as well. He's assistant-surgeon to the
'Taurus' gun-brig on the African station; and if I was there, it's
little I 'd care for the whole lot of bones and balderdash.”
“Come, don't be silly. Let us go on with the scapula. Describe the
glenoid cavity.”
“If you were the girl you might be, I'd not be bored with all this
stupid trash, Polly.”
“What do you mean? I don't understand you.”
“It's easy enough to understand me. You are as thick as thieves, you and
that old Admiral,--that Sir Charles Cobham. I saw you talking to the
old fellow at the meet the other morning. You 've only to say, 'There's
Tom--my brother Tom--wants a navy appointment; he's not passed yet, but
if the fellows at the Board got a hint, just as much as, “Don't be hard
on him--“'”
“I 'd not do it to make you a post-captain, sir,” said she, severely.
“You very much overrate my influence, and very much underrate my
integrity, when you ask it.”
“Hoity-toity! ain't we dignified! So you'd rather see me plucked, eh?”
“Yes, if that should be the only alternative.”
“Thank you, Polly, that's all! thank you,” said he; and he drew his
sleeve across his eyes.
“My dear Tom,” said she, laying her white soft hand on his coarse
brown fingers, “can you not see that if I even stooped to anything so
unworthy, that it would compromise your whole prospects in life? You'd
obtain an assistant-surgeoncy, and never rise above it.”
“And do I ask to rise above it? Do I ask anything beyond getting out of
this house, and earning bread that is not grudged me?”
“Nay, nay; if you talk that way, I've done.”
“Well, I do talk that way. He sent me off to Kilkenny last week--you saw
it yourself--to bring out that trash for the shop, and he would n't pay
the car hire, and made me carry two stone of carbonate of magnesia and
a jar of leeches fourteen miles. You were just taking that post and rail
out of Nixon's lawn as I came by. You saw me well enough.”
“I am glad to say I did not,” said she, sighing.
“I saw you, then, and how that gray carried you! You were waving a
handkerchief in your hand; what was that for?”
“It was to show Ambrose Bushe that the ground was good; he was afraid of
being staked!”
[Illustration: 084]
“That's exactly what I am. I 'm afraid of being 'staked up' at the Hall,
and if _you_ 'd take as much trouble about your brother as you did for
Ambrose Bushe--”
“Tom, Tom, I have taken it for eight weary months. I believe I know Bell
on the bones, and Harrison on the arteries, by heart!”
“Who thanks you?” said he, doggedly. “When you read a thing twice, you
never forget it; but it's not so with me.”
“Try what a little work will do, Tom; be assured there is not half
as much disparity between people's brains as there is between their
industry.”
“I'd rather have luck than either, I know that. It's the only thing,
after all.”
She gave a very deep sigh, and leaned her head on her hand.
“Work and toil as hard as you may,” continued he, with all the fervor of
one on a favorite theme, “if you haven't luck you 'll be beaten. Can you
deny that, Polly?”
“If you allow me to call merit what you call luck, I'll agree with you.
But I 'd much rather go on with our work. What is the insertion of the
deltoid? I'm sure you know _that!_”
[Illustration: 84]
“The deltoid! the deltoid!” muttered he. “I forget all about the
deltoid, but, of course, it's like the rest of them. It's inserted into
a ridge or a process, or whatever you call it--”
“Oh, Tom, this is very hopeless. How can you presume to face your
examiners with such ignorance as this?”
“I'll tell you what I'll do, Polly; Grove told me he did it,--if I find
my pluck failing me, I 'll have a go of brandy before I go in.”
She found it very hard not to laugh at the solemn gravity of this
speech, and just as hard not to cry as she looked at him who spoke it At
the same moment Dr. Dill opened the door, calling out sharply, “Where's
that fellow, Tom? Who has seen him this morning?”
“He's here, papa,” said Polly. “We are brushing up the anatomy for the
last time.”
“His head must be in capital order for it, after his night's exploit.
I heard of you, sir, and your reputable wager. Noonan was up here this
morning with the whole story!”
“I 'd have won if they 'd not put snuff in the punch--”
“You are a shameless hound--”
“Oh, papa! If you knew how he was working,--how eager he is to pass
his examination, and be a credit to us all, and owe his independence to
himself--”
“I know more of him than you do, miss,--far more, too, than he is aware
of,--and I know something of myself also; and I tell him now, that if
he's rejected at the examination, he need not come back here with the
news.”
“And where am I to go, then?” asked the young fellow, half insolently.
“You may go--” Where to, the doctor was not suffered to indicate, for
already Polly had thrown herself into his arms and arrested the speech.
“Well, I suppose I can 'list; a fellow need not know much about
gallipots for that.” As he said this, he snatched up his tattered old
cap and made for the door.
“Stay, sir! I have business for you to do,” cried Dill, sternly.
“There's a young gentleman at the 'Fisherman's Home' laid up with a bad
sprain. I have prescribed twenty leeches on the part. Go down and apply
them.”
“That's what old Molly Day used to do,” said Tom, angrily.'
“Yes, sir, and knew more of the occasion that required it than you will
ever do. See that you apply them all to the outer ankle, and attend well
to the bleeding; the patient is a young man of rank, with whom you had
better take no liberties.”
“If I go at all--”
“Tom, Tom, none of this!” said Polly, who drew very close to him, and
looked up at him with eyes full of tears.
“Am I going as your son this time? or did you tell him--as you told Mr.
Nixon--that you 'd send your young man?”
“There! listen to that!” cried the doctor, turning to Polly. “I hope you
are proud of your pupil.”
She made no answer, but whispering some hurried words in her brother's
ear, and pressing at the same time something into his hand, she shuffled
him out of the room and closed the door.
The doctor now paced the room, so engrossed by passion that he forgot he
was not alone, and uttered threats and mumbled out dark predictions with
a fearful energy. Meanwhile Polly put by the books and drawings, and
removed everything which might recall the late misadventure.
“What's your letter about, papa?” said she, pointing to a square-shaped
envelope which he still held in his hand.
“Oh, by the way,” said he, quietly, “this is from Cob-ham. They ask us
up there to dinner to-day, and to stop the night.” The doctor tried very
hard to utter this speech with the unconcern of one alluding to some
every-day occurrence. Nay, he did more; he endeavored to throw into it
a certain air of fastidious weariness, as though to say, “See how these
people will have me; mark how they persecute me with their attentions!”
Polly understood the “situation” perfectly, and it was with actual
curiosity in her tone she asked, “Do you mean to go, sir?”
“I suppose we must, dear,” he said, with a deep sigh. “A professional
man is no more the arbiter of his social hours than of his business
ones. Cooper always said dining at home costs a thousand a year.”
“So much, papa?” asked she, with much semblance of innocence.
“I don't mean to myself,” said he, reddening, “nor to any physician in
country practice; but we all lose by it, more or less.”
Polly, meanwhile, had taken the letter, and was reading it over. It was
very brief. It had been originally begun, “Lady Cobham presents,” but a
pen was run through the words, and it ran,--
“Dear Dr. Dill,--If a short notice will not inconvenience
you, will you and your daughter dine here to-day at seven?
There is no moon, and we shall expect you to stay the night.
“Truly yours,
“Georgiana Cobham.
“The Admiral hopes Miss D. will not forget to bring her music.”
“Then we go, sir?” asked she, with eagerness; for it was a house to
which she had never yet been invited, though she had long wished for the
entrée.
“I shall go, certainly,” said he. “As to you, there will be the old
discussion with your mother as to clothes, and the usual declaration
that you have really nothing to put on.”
“Oh! but I have, papa. My wonderful-worked muslin, that was to have
astonished the world at the race ball, but which arrived too late, is
now quite ready to captivate all beholders; and I have just learned that
new song, 'Where's the slave so lowly?' which I mean to give with a
most rebellious fervor; and, in fact, I am dying to assault this same
fortress of Cobham, and see what it is like inside the citadel.”
“Pretty much like Woodstay, and the Grove, and Mount Kelly, and the
other places we go to,” said Dill, pompously.
“The same sort of rooms, the same sort of dinner, the same company;
nothing different but the liveries.”
“Very true, papa; but there is always an interest in seeing how
people behave in their own house, whom you have never seen except in
strangers'. I have met Lady Cobham at the Beachers', where she scarcely
noticed me. I am curious to see what sort of reception she will
vouchsafe me at home.”
“Well, go and look after your things, for we have eight miles to drive,
and Billy has already been at Dangan and over to Mooney's Mills, and he
's not the fresher for it.”
“I suppose I 'd better take my hat and habit, papa?”
“What for, child?”
“Just as you always carry your lancets, papa,--you don't know what may
turn up.” And she was off before he could answer her.