Clifford Ashdown

Name: "How I Attended a Nervous Patient"
Author: Clifford Ashdown

"How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

Summary

“"How I Attended a Nervous Patient"”, published in 1905, is a work by Clifford Ashdown. It explores elements such as Smithson, Borleywood and Valori.

Quotes from "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (Clifford Ashdown)

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ From the last word of the dying Valori I imagine that the brotherhood so vauntingly alluded to by "Smithson" was the Mafia, the infamous society which to this day practically though secretly governs Sicily and much of Italy as well. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ By the time I had swallowed a few mouthfuls of breakfast Trevatt was ready for me; my idea was to send him on to the post office at Borleywood with a wire for the attendant while I was seeing Valori, and as we drove along I scrawled the message on my knee. It is no easy task to write in a jolting dog-cart, and I was touching up some of the more tremulous letters when Trevatt pulled up with a jerk.
"Mr. Smithson, sir," was his explanation; and sure enough it was the artist, who approached, calm and unconcerned as ever. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ On the way to Borleywood I continued my treatment, which I was relieved to find successful just before we arrived there; so, after seeing Valori safely to bed, I made a second start for Burkfield—and breakfast.
The morning having been so muddled, I was running after time all the rest of the day, and it was not until the early evening that I was able to work round to Borleywood. Valori, I learned, had been very restless. He was constantly calling for assistance, and whenever Mrs. Oakenfall obeyed the summons she found him as nervous as in his previous attack. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ Smithson, without being exactly a genius, was certainly a very versatile painter. For instance, I never saw so many different ways of treating skies from the same hand, and the odd thing was that a sea-piece which really might have passed for an unknown work of Stanfield's stood next to a positive atrocity, which the conductor of a cheap illustrated paper would have hesitated to foist upon the public at Christmas time ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ Valori had not regained consciousness, and although I held nitrite of amyl to his nostrils, the slight pulse was scarcely improved, and I was turning back to insist on Smithson giving him temporary shelter when the jog-trot of an approaching cart sounded very musically to me. It was the Borleywood carrier, one Leathersole, who pulled up on seeing the state of affairs, and between us we laid poor Valori in the bottom of the cart, and storing the two machines inside, set out to return. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ Even now I was sure Smithson was lying to me, for he had neither sketch-book, colour-box, nor of the other paraphernalia of the painting
"'Doctor! Quick! He's dying!' screamed a voice."
artist. It was strange how vividly he always managed to convey the impression that he had something to conceal. Arrived at the cottage, I sent Trevatt off with the telegram, and was taking a very formal farewell of my passenger when "Doctor! Quick! He's dying!" screamed a voice. Mrs. Oakenfall, intensely excited, was calling me. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ All this came back to me as I gazed, for there, staring me in the face, was the self-same canvas, "Newlyn stroke" and all! Havery had identified the signature—that of a quite unknown man, but destined, he said, for great things in the future if he survived so long—and I searched eagerly for it in the corner. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ If you are going to Borleywood, do you mind giving me a lift? My ankle isn't very strong just yet, and I want to sketch a farm out that way."
My opinion of Smithson being what it was, I should have ignored him had I been alone, but Trevatt knew so much of other people's affairs that I rather suspected him of being a gossip, and was anxious accordingly that he should not see any lack of cordiality on my part; for the same reason I was unable to tell Smithson as I should like to have done what I thought of his behaviour as regards Valori. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ Now I am not an artist, but I had smoked too many pipes in my friend Havery's studio not to have assimilated a little of the jargon; and as I took a roll of tape-strapping from my bag and proceeded to truss up the ankle, I turned the conversation into what I imagined was a congenial topic. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ Valori when you see him that I told you anything about him, will you, sir?"
"No, no; of course what you have told me is quite confidential. I shall be round presently."
I had been nearly a month at Burkfield, an engagement I had in a way secured for myself. Cuthill was—or perhaps it would be more correct to say his patients were—rather exacting as to the sort of man they expected him to leave in charge of his practice, so that he was somewhat averse to taking a stranger on the mere recommendation of an agent—even such a reliable one as my good friend Adamson ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ As I examined it carefully, to make sure there was no fracture, he explained how he had been sauntering through a dark avenue the day before, and had slipped on some wet leaves.
"Do you mean that long drive just at the end of your road?" said I. "It would make a good background for a tragic composition, don't you think?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ It was about a fortnight after my first meeting with Smithson that the incident occurred which converted the feeling of distrust I entertained for him to one of positive aversion. I had been called to a farm just beyond Borleywood in the middle of breakfast, when, Trevatt being busy, I took my cycle, and on my way back thought I would look in upon Valori. I found him out—riding, Mrs. Oakenfall said ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ Smithson's compliments and thanks." It bore the London post-mark, and contained a ten-pound note (at least twice as much as Cuthill would have expected for the attendance) , and the following remarkable statement:—
"When you receive this I shall have left England for ever. My real name is immaterial to you, but I am not the least among a brotherhood more powerful than kings and emperors, numberless as the motes in a sunbeam, widely diffused as its light. Some two years ago a member violated its laws, and was adjudged to die by his own hand. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Clifford Ashdown, "How I Attended a Nervous Patient" (1905)

“ Nervous dyspepsia, thought I, and after a little more conversation I was about to leave him in a comparatively placid state when he startled me by bouncing off the bed, and before I could stop him had darted to the head of the stairs, where he clung to the rails listening intently, the rattle of a loose banister voicing his nervous tremor the while. His ears, more attentive than mine, had caught a knock at the cottage door, and it was not until apparently satisfied as to the identity of the milkman, whose conversation with Mrs. ”

Clifford Ashdown

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