Alice Duer Miller

“ We see a lot of them in the hospitals. Not only naughty boys and wayward girls, not only lonely business men, but respectable married women—they all use New York—they check their moral principles outside. If there were only New Yorkers in town it would be quiet enough. You don't know, Jessie——” And he launched into those medical experiences of which every doctor's life is so rich.
Jessie drove to the station with him, gave him an unembarrassed hug at the gate of the train, and went home feeling forlorn, although he was to be back for breakfast in the morning. ”

“ Mother loves Alderney.”
Holland had both the professional man's repugnance to the idea of women entering his profession, and every man's belief that this repugnance was based on his consideration for woman's own best interests. He thought of the desperate competition, the physical strain of a doctor's life; he felt the spacious calm and safety of the house in which he found himself. He resolved to tell the girl that she was wrong—that her obvious young brother had the right of it, but as he began to speak the door opened, and Eldon came in with his wife. ”

“ He always thought when he was asked to do such things that he must accept because it was a good mental discipline for a practicing physician to get his ideas clearly down on paper; but when the time came he always bitterly, regretted the loss of time. Besides, he hated to go away from his own home, in which he was able to spend so few hours as it was.
“I'll never do this again,” he said to himself as he got out of the train at Alderney. He went into the station and checked his bag, so that he could pick it up easily in a few hours when he came back to take the midnight train. ”

“ It was all very quiet and peaceful, except for Jessie, who, as she packed, was expressing her opinion of the conduct of out-of-town people in New York.
Usually Holland was more interested in observing the reactions of living organisms to the stimuli of their environment than in criticism of them; but Lilian having irritated him he approached the subject more as a human being and less as a scientist.
“Yes,” he said, “it's for the out-of-town people that most of these joints are run. ”

“ Suppose mother had dashed off and left us because she found Alderney a little dull?”
“I should have had the greatest sympathy with her,” returned Elizabeth.
Her mother laid her hand on the girl's. “I believe you would,” she said.
“Liz only wants to be a doctor,” her brother went on, “because the medical school here isn't open to women—she wants to get away to New York.”
“And that's why you want to be an engineer,” retorted the girl. “You could study medicine here—so you decided to be an engineer, and go to Boston.”
“I've always wanted to be an engineer. It's a great profession. ”

“ He longed to go quietly down to his train and go to bed himself.
“No, no, no,” said Eldon. “She hasn't gone to bed. It's ridiculous. She particularly wanted to meet you—she knew I wanted her to. She hasn't——” He left the room still talking.
“My father,” said the son with a faint smile, “never having been tired in all his life, is incapable of understanding that any one else can be. My mother had a headache.”
“Dr. Holland,” said the girl, “will you tell me how I can get into the——”
“Oh, good Heavens!” exclaimed Richard with some violence. ”

“ He had the art, which doctors are obliged to acquire, of appearing to be possessed of infinite leisure. If this woman was to be saved all the scandal of a newspaper story, she must be sent home at once. ”