He remembers it when he
gets older. It helps him to forgive himself more or less for what he's
sorry for in life. I've enough in this bunch to pay for board and
professional attendance, or else the price has gone up since I had a
doctor before."
He laughed now, and the laugh was half-ironical, half-protesting. It
seemed to come from the well of a hidden past; and no past that is hidden
has ever been a happy past.
The Young Doctor took the bills, looked at them as though they were
curios, and then returned them with the remark that they were of a kind
and denomination of no use to him. There was a twinkle in his eye as he
said it. Then he added:
"I agree with you that it's a good thing for a man to lay up a little
credit of kindness here and there for his old age. Well, anything I did
for you was meant for kindness and nothing else. You weren't a bit of
trouble, and it was simply your good constitution and a warm room and a
few fly-blisters that pulled you through. It wasn't any skill of mine. Go
and thank my housekeeper if you like. She did it all."
"I did my best to thank her," answered Jean Jacques. "I said she reminded
me of Virginie Palass Poucette, and I could say nothing better than that,
except one thing; and I'm not saying that to anybody."
The Young Doctor had a thrill. Here was a very unusual man, with mystery
and tragedy, and yet something above both, in his eyes.
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