A YOUNG STRANGER.
In 1856 New Orleans was in the midst of the darkest ten years of her
history. Yet she was full of new-comers from all parts of the commercial
world,--strangers seeking livelihood. The ravages of cholera and
yellow-fever, far from keeping them away, seemed actually to draw them.
In the three years 1853, '54, and '55, the cemeteries had received over
thirty-five thousand dead; yet here, in 1856, besides shiploads of
European immigrants, came hundreds of unacclimated youths, from all
parts of the United States, to fill the wide gaps which they imagined
had been made in the ranks of the great exporting city's clerking force.
Upon these pilgrims Dr. Sevier cast an eye full of interest, and often
of compassion hidden under outward impatience. "Who wants to see," he
would demand, "men--_and women_--increasing the risks of this uncertain
life?" But he was also full of respect for them. There was a certain
nobility rightly attributable to emigration itself in the abstract.
It was the cutting loose from friends and aid,--those sweet-named
temptations,--and the going forth into self-appointed exile and into
dangers known and unknown, trusting to the help of one's own right hand
to exchange honest toil for honest bread and raiment. His eyes kindled
to see the goodly, broad, red-cheeked fellows. Sometimes, though, he
saw women, and sometimes tender women, by their side; and that sight
touched the pathetic chord of his heart with a rude twangle that vexed
him.
It was on a certain bright, cool morning early in October that, as he
drove down Carondelet street toward his office, and one of those little
white omnibuses of the old Apollo-street line, crowding in before his
carriage, had compelled his driver to draw close in by the curb-stone
and slacken speed to a walk, his attention chanced to fall upon a young
man of attractive appearance, glancing stranger-wise and eagerly at
signs and entrances while he moved down the street. Twice, in the moment
of the Doctor's enforced delay, he noticed the young stranger make
inquiry of the street's more accustomed frequenters, and that in each
case he was directed farther on. But, the way opened, the Doctor's horse
switched his tail and was off, the stranger was left behind, and the
next moment the Doctor stepped across the sidewalk and went up the
stairs of Number 3-1/2 to his office. Something told him--we are apt to
fall into thought on a stair-way--that the stranger was looking for a
physician.
He had barely disposed of the three or four waiting messengers that
arose from their chairs against the corridor wall, and was still reading
the anxious lines left in various handwritings on his slate, when the
young man entered. He was of fair height, slenderly built, with soft
auburn hair, a little untrimmed, neat dress, and a diffident, yet
expectant and courageous, face.
"Dr. Sevier?"
"Yes, sir."
"Doctor, my wife is very ill; can I get you to come at once and see
her?"
"Who is her physician?"
"I have not called any; but we must have one now."
"I don't know about going at once. This is my hour for being in the
office. How far is it, and what's the trouble?"
"We are only three squares away, just here in Custom-house street."
The speaker began to add a faltering enumeration of some very grave
symptoms. The Doctor noticed that he was slightly deaf; he uttered his
words as though he did not hear them.
"Yes," interrupted Dr. Sevier, speaking half to himself as he turned
around to a standing case of cruel-looking silver-plated things on
shelves; "that's a small part of the penalty women pay for the doubtful
honor of being our mothers. I'll go. What is your number? But you had
better drive back with me if you can." He drew back from the glass case,
shut the door, and took his hat.
"Narcisse!"
On the side of the office nearest the corridor a door let into a
hall-room that afforded merely good space for the furniture needed by a
single accountant. The Doctor had other interests besides those of his
profession, and, taking them altogether, found it necessary, or at least
convenient, to employ continuously the services of a person to keep his
accounts and collect his bills. Through the open door the book-keeper
could be seen sitting on a high stool at a still higher desk,--a young
man of handsome profile and well-knit form. At the call of his name he
unwound his legs from the rounds of the stool and leaped into the
Doctor's presence with a superlatively high-bred bow.
"I shall be back in fifteen minutes," said the Doctor. "Come,
Mr. ----," and went out with the stranger.
Narcisse had intended to speak. He stood a moment, then lifted the
last half inch of a cigarette to his lips, took a long, meditative
inhalation, turned half round on his heel, dashed the remnant with
fierce emphasis into a spittoon, ejected two long streams of smoke from
his nostrils, and extending his fist toward the door by which the Doctor
had gone out, said:--
"All right, ole hoss!" No, not that way. It is hard to give his
pronunciation by letter. In the word "right" he substituted an a for the
r, sounding it almost in the same instant with the i, yet distinct from
it: "All a-ight, ole hoss!"
Then he walked slowly back to his desk, with that feeling of relief
which some men find in the renewal of a promissory note, twined his legs
again among those of the stool, and, adding not a word, resumed his pen.
The Doctor's carriage was hurrying across Canal street.
"Dr. Sevier," said the physician's companion, "I don't know what your
charges are"--
"The highest," said the Doctor, whose dyspepsia was gnawing him just
then with fine energy. The curt reply struck fire upon the young man.
"I don't propose to drive a bargain, Dr. Sevier!" He flushed angrily
after he had spoken, breathed with compressed lips, and winked savagely,
with the sort of indignation that school-boys show to a harsh master.
The physician answered with better self-control.
"What do you propose?"
"I was going to propose--being a stranger to you, sir--to pay in
advance." The announcement was made with a tremulous, but triumphant,
_hauteur_, as though it must cover the physician with mortification. The
speaker stretched out a rather long leg, and, drawing a pocket-book,
produced a twenty-dollar piece.
The Doctor looked full in his face with impatient surprise, then turned
his eyes away again as if he restrained himself, and said, in a subdued
tone:--
"I would rather you had haggled about the price."
"I don't hear"--said the other, turning his ear.
The Doctor waved his hand:--
"Put that up, if you please."
The young stranger was disconcerted. He remained silent for a moment,
wearing a look of impatient embarrassment. He still extended the piece,
turning it over and over with his thumb-nail as it lay on his fingers.
"You don't know me, Doctor," he said. He got another cruel answer.
"We're getting acquainted," replied the physician.
The victim of the sarcasm bit his lip, and protested, by an unconscious,
sidewise jerk of the chin:--
"I wish you'd"--and he turned the coin again.
The physician dropped an eagle's stare on the gold.
"I don't practise medicine on those principles."
"But, Doctor," insisted the other, appeasingly, "you can make an
exception if you will. Reasons are better than rules, my old professor
used to say. I am here without friends, or letters, or credentials of
any sort; this is the only recommendation I can offer."
"Don't recommend you at all; anybody can do that."
The stranger breathed a sigh of overtasked patience, smiled with a
baffled air, seemed once or twice about to speak, but doubtful what to
say, and let his hand sink.
"Well, Doctor,"--he rested his elbow on his knee, gave the piece one
more turn over, and tried to draw the physician's eye by a look of
boyish pleasantness,--"I'll not ask you to take pay in advance, but I
will ask you to take care of this money for me. Suppose I should lose
it, or have it stolen from me, or--Doctor, it would be a real comfort to
me if you would."
"I can't help that. I shall treat your wife, and then send in my bill."
The Doctor folded arms and appeared to give attention to his driver.
But at the same time he asked:--
"Not subject to epilepsy, eh?"
"No, sir!" The indignant shortness of the retort drew no sign of
attention from the Doctor; he was silently asking himself what this
nonsense meant. Was it drink, or gambling, or a confidence game? Or
was it only vanity, or a mistake of inexperience? He turned his head
unexpectedly, and gave the stranger's facial lines a quick, thorough
examination. It startled them from a look of troubled meditation. The
physician as quickly turned away again.
"Doctor," began the other, but added no more.
The physician was silent. He turned the matter over once more in his
mind. The proposal was absurdly unbusiness-like. That his part in it
might look ungenerous was nothing; so his actions were right, he rather
liked them to bear a hideous aspect: that was his war-paint. There was
that in the stranger's attitude that agreed fairly with his own theories
of living. A fear of debt, for instance, if that was genuine it was
good; and, beyond and better than that, a fear of money. He began to be
more favorably impressed.
"Give it to me," he said, frowning; "mark you, this is your way,"--he
dropped the gold into his vest-pocket,--"it isn't mine."
The young man laughed with visible relief, and rubbed his knee with his
somewhat too delicate hand. The Doctor examined him again with a milder
glance.
"I suppose you think you've got the principles of life all right, don't
you?"
"Yes, I do," replied the other, taking his turn at folding arms.
"H-m-m! I dare say you do. What you lack is the practice." The Doctor
sealed his utterance with a nod.
The young man showed amusement; more, it may be, than he felt, and
presently pointed out his lodging-place.
"Here, on this side; Number 40;" and they alighted.