The Girl at Cobhurst
Page 19
CHAPTER XIX
MISS PANNEY IS "TOOK SUDDEN"
"I have spoken to Mr. Ames about it," said Dr. Tolbridge to Miss Panney,as two days later they were sitting together in his office, "and we areboth agreed that teachers in Thorbury are like the vines on the gableends of our church; they are needed there, but they do not flourish. Yousee, so many of our people send their children away to school, that is,when they are really old enough to learn anything."
"I would do it too, if I had children," said the old lady; "but this is amatter which rises above the ordinary points of view. I do not believethat you look at it properly, for if you did you would not sit there andtalk so coolly. Do you appreciate the fact that if Miss Drane does notsoon get something to do, you will be living on soggy, half-baked bread,greasy fried meat, water-soaked vegetables, and muddy coffee, and everyone of your higher sentiments will be merged in dyspepsia?"
The doctor smiled. "I did not suppose it would be as bad as that," hesaid; "but if what you say is true, let us skip about instantly, and dosomething."
"That is the sort of action that I am trying to goad you into," saidthe old lady.
"Oh, I will do what I can," said the doctor, "but I really think there isnothing to be done here, and at this season. People do not want teachersin summer, and I see no promise of a later demand of this sort inThorbury. We must try elsewhere."
"Not yet," said the other. "I shall not give up Thorbury yet. It iseasier for us to work for Miss Drane here than anywhere else, because weare here, and we are not anywhere else. Moreover, she will like to comehere, for then she will not be among strangers; so please let us exhaustThorbury before thinking of any other place."
"Very good," said the doctor, leaning back in his chair, "and now let usexhaust Thorbury as fast as we can, before a patient comes in. I amexpecting one."
"If she comes, she can wait," said Miss Panney. "You have a case herewhich is acute and alarming, and cannot be trifled with."
"How do you know I expect a 'she'?" asked the doctor.
"If it had been a man, he would have been here and gone," saidMiss Panney.
Miss Panney knew as well as any one that immediate employment as ateacher could be rarely obtained in summer, and for this reason shewished to confine her efforts to the immediate neighborhood, wherepersonal persuasion and influence might be brought into action.Moreover, she had said to herself, "If we cannot get any teaching forthe girl, we must get her something else to do, for the present. Butwhatever is to be done must be done here and now, or the old woman willbe off before we know it."
She sat for a few moments with her brows knitted in thought. Suddenlyshe exclaimed, "Is it Susan Clopsey you expect? Very well, then, I willmake an exception in her favor. She is just coming in at the gate, and Iwould not interfere with your practice on her for anything. She has gotmoney and a spinal column, and as long as they both last she is more tobe depended on than government bonds. If her troubles ever get into herlegs, and I have reason to believe they will, you can afford to hire alittle maid for your cook. Old Daniel Clopsey, her grandfather, died atninety-five, and he had then the same doctorable rheumatism that he hadat fifty. I have something to think over, and I will come in again whenshe is gone."
"Depart, O mercenary being!" exclaimed the doctor, "before you abase mythoughts from sulphate of quinia to filthy lucre."
"Lucre is never filthy until you lose it," said the old lady as she wentout on the back piazza, and closed the door behind her.
About twenty minutes later she burst into the doctor's office. "Mercy onus!" she exclaimed, "are you here yet, Susan Clopsey? I must see you,doctor; but don't you go, Susan. I won't keep him more than two minutes."
"Oh, don't mind me," cried Miss Clopsey, a parched maiden of twoscore. "Ican wait just as well as not. Where is the pain, Miss Panney? Were youtook sudden?"
"Like the pop of a jackbox. Come, doctor, I must see you in the parlor."
"Can I do anything?" asked Miss Clopsey, rising. "How dreadful! Shall Igo for hot water?"
"Oh, don't be alarmed," said Miss Panney, hurrying the amazed doctor outof the room; "it is chronic. He will be back in no time."
Miss Clopsey, left alone in the office, sank back in her chair.
"Chronic by jerks," she sighed; "there can be few things worse than that;and at her age, too!"
"What can be the matter?" asked the doctor, as the two stood inthe parlor.
"It is an idea," said Miss Panney; "you cannot think with what violenceit seized me. Doctor, what became of that book you wrote on the'Diagnosis of Sympathy'?"
The doctor opened his eyes in astonishment.
"Nothing has become of it. It has been in my desk for two years. I havenot had time even to copy it."
"And of course your writing could not be trusted to a printer. Now whatyou should do is this: employ that Drane girl to copy your manuscript.She can do it here, and if she comes to a word she cannot make out, shecan ask you. That will keep her going until autumn, and by that time wecan get her some scholars."
"Miss Panney," said the doctor, "are you going crazy? I cannot affordcharity on that scale."
"Charity!" repeated the old lady, sarcastically. "A pretty word to use.By that sort of charity you give yourself one of the greatest ofearthly blessings, in the shape of La Fleur, and you get out a bookwhich will certainly be a benefit to the world, and will, I believe,bring you fame and profit. And you are frightened by the paltry sumthat will be necessary to pay the board of the girl and her mother forperhaps two months. Now do not condemn this plan until you have hadtime to consider it. Go back to your Clopsey; I am going to find Mrs.Tolbridge and talk to her."