seems to be in a very feeble condition. Her physicians have advised her to try the effects of a change of scene, and I have brought her down to your busy city, sir.”
The Doctor assented. The stranger resumed: —
“Its hurry and energy are a great contrast to the plantation life, sir.”
“They’re very unlike,” the physician admitted.
“This chafing of thousands of competitive designs,” said the visitor, “this great fretwork of cross purposes, is a decided change from the quiet order of our rural life. Hmm! There everything is under the administration of one undisputed will, and is executed by the unquestioning obedience of our happy and contented slave peasantry. I prefer the country. But I thought this was just the change that would arouse and electrify an invalid who has really no tangible complaint.”
“Has the result been unsatisfactory?”
“Entirely so. I am unexpectedly disappointed.” The speaker’s thought seemed to be that the climate of New Orleans had not responded with that hospitable alacrity which was due so opulent, reasonable, and universally obeyed a guest.
There was a pause here, and Dr. Sevier looked around at the book which lay at his elbow. But the visitor did not resume, and the Doctor presently asked: —
“Do you wish me to see your wife?”
“I called to see you alone first,” said the other, “because there might be questions to be asked which were better answered in her absence.”
“Then you think you know the secret of her illness, do you?”
“I do. I think, indeed I may say I know, it is – bereavement.”
The Doctor compressed his lips and bowed.
The stranger drooped his head somewhat, and, resting his elbows on the arms of his chair, laid the tips of his thumbs and fingers softly together.
“The truth is, sir, she cannot recover from the loss of our son.”
“An infant?” asked the Doctor. His bell rang again as he put the question.
“No, sir; a young man, – one whom I had thought a person of great promise; just about to enter life.”
“When did he die?”
“He has been dead nearly a year. I” – The speaker ceased as the mulatto waiting-man appeared at the open door, with a large, simple, German face looking easily over his head from behind.
“Toctor,” said the owner of this face, lifting an immense open hand, “Toctor, uf you bleace, Toctor, you vill bleace ugscooce me.”
The Doctor frowned at the servant for permitting the interruption. But the gentleman beside him said: —
“Let him come in, sir; he seems to be in haste, sir, and I am not, – I am not, at all.”
“Come in,” said the physician.
The new-comer stepped into the room. He was about six feet three inches in height, three feet six in breadth, and the same in thickness. Two kindly blue eyes shone softly in an expanse of face that had been clean-shaven every Saturday night for many years, and that ended in a retreating chin and a dewlap. The limp, white shirt-collar just below was without a necktie, and the waist of his pantaloons, which seemed intended to supply this deficiency, did not quite, but only almost reached up to the unoccupied blank. He removed from his respectful head a soft gray hat, whitened here and there with flour.
“Yentlemen,” he said, slowly, “you vill ugscooce me to interruptet you, – yentlemen.”
“Do you wish to see me?” asked Dr. Sevier.
The German made an odd gesture of deferential assent, lifting one open hand a little in front of him to the level of his face, with the wrist bent forward and the fingers pointing down.
“Uf you bleace, Toctor, I toose; undt tat’s te fust time I effer tit vanted a toctor. Undt you mus’ ugscooce me, Toctor, to callin’ on you, ovver I vish you come undt see mine” —
To the surprise of all, tears gushed from his eyes.
“Mine poor vife, Toctor!” He turned to one side, pointed his broad hand toward the floor, and smote his forehead.
“I yoost come in fun mine paykery undt comin’ into mine howse, fen – I see someting” – he waved his hand downward again – “someting – layin’ on te – floor – face pleck ans a nigger’s; undt fen I look to see who udt iss, —udt is Mississ Reisen! Toctor, I vish you come right off! I couldn’t shtayndt udt you toandt come right avay!”
“I’ll come,” said the Doctor, without rising; “just write your name and address on that little white slate yonder.”
“Toctor,” said the German, extending and dipping his hat, “I’m ferra much a-velcome to you, Toctor; undt tat’s yoost fot te pottekerra by mine corner sayt you vould too. He sayss, ‘Reisen,’ he sayss, ‘you yoost co to Toctor Tsewier.’” He bent his great body over the farther end of the table and slowly worked out his name, street, and number. “Dtere udt iss, Toctor; I put udt town on teh schlate; ovver, I hope you ugscooce te hayndtwriding.”
“Very well. That’s right. That’s all.”
The German lingered. The Doctor gave a bow of dismission.
“That’s all, I say. I’ll be there in a moment. That’s all. Dan, order my carriage!”
“Yentlemen, you vill ugscooce me?”
The German withdrew, returning each gentleman’s bow with a faint wave of the hat.
During this interview the more polished stranger had sat with bowed head, motionless and silent, lifting it only once and for a moment at the German’s emotional outburst. Then the upward and backward turned face was marked with a commiseration partly artificial, but also partly natural. He now looked up at the Doctor.
“I shall have to leave you,” said the Doctor.
“Certainly, sir,” replied the other; “by all means!” The willingness was slightly overdone and the benevolence of tone was mixed with complacency. “By all means,” he said again; “this is one of those cases where it is only a proper grace in the higher to yield place to the lower.” He waited for a response, but the Doctor merely frowned into space and called for his boots. The visitor resumed: —
“I have a good deal of feeling, sir, for the unlettered and the vulgar. They have their station, but they have also – though doubtless in smaller capacity than we – their pleasures and pains.”
Seeing the Doctor ready to go, he began to rise.
“I may not be gone long,” said the physician, rather coldly; “if you choose to wait” —
“I thank you; n-no-o” – The visitor stopped between a sitting and a rising posture.
“Here are books,” said the Doctor, “and the evening papers, – ‘Picayune,’ ‘Delta,’ ‘True Delta.’” It seemed for a moment as though the gentleman might sink into his seat again. “And there’s the ‘New York
