Dr. Short listened within the patient
politeness of a gentleman, to whom all this was superfluous. He asked for
a sheet of note-paper, and divided it so gently, he seemed to be
persuading one thing to be two. He wrote a pair of prescriptions, and
whilst thus employed looked up every now and then and conversed with the
ladies.
"You have a slight subscapular affection, Miss Dodd: I mean, a little
pain under the shoulder-blade."
"No, sir," said Julia quietly.
Dr. Short looked a little surprised; his female patients rarely
contradicted him. Was it for them to disown things he was so a good as to
assign them?
"Ah!" said he, "you are not conscious of it: all the better; it must be
slight; a mere uneasiness: no more." He then numbered the prescriptions,
1, 2, and advised Mrs. Dodd to (1r01) No. I after the eighth day, and
substitute No. 2, to be continued until convalescence. He put on his
gloves to leave. Mrs. Dodd then, with some hesitation, asked him humbly
whether she might ask him what the disorder was. "Certainly, madam," said
he graciously; "your daughter is labouring under a slight torpidity of
the liver.
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