Dr. Thorne

“ Do you know? Now I say Dr. Thorne's not a man of the world.'
'He's about the best man I know, or ever heard of,' said the squire. 'And if any man ever had a good friend, you have got one in him; and so have I:' and the squire silently drank the doctor's health.
'All very true, I dare say; but yet he's not up to trap. Now look here, squire——'
'If you don't mind, sir,' said Frank, 'I've got something very particular—perhaps, however——'
'Stay till Thorne returns, Frank.'
Frank did stay till Thorne returned, and then escaped. ”

“ Poor Lady Scatcherd had an inkling that Dr Fillgrave and Mr Rerechild were accustomed to row in the same boat, and she was not altogether free from fear that there might be an outbreak. She therefore took an opportunity before Dr Thorne's arrival to deprecate any wrathful tendency.
"Oh, Lady Scatcherd! I have the greatest respect for Dr Thorne," said he; "the greatest possible respect; a most skilful practitioner—something brusque certainly, and perhaps a little obstinate. But what then? we all have our faults, Lady Scatcherd." ”

“ But it wasn't her fault, Thorne; it was none of her doing. She never asked for any such nonsense.'
'She has been an excellent wife, Scatcherd; and what is more she is an excellent woman. She is, and ever will be, one of my dearest friends.'
'Thank'ee, doctor, thank'ee. Yes; she has been a good wife—better for a poor man than a rich one; but then, that was what she was born to. You won't let her be knocked about by them, will you, Thorne?'
Dr. Thorne again assured him, that as long as he lived Lady Scatcherd should never want one true friend ”

“ Dr Thorne is an excellent man—in his way very excellent, Lady Scatcherd."
This little conversation took place after Mr Rerechild's first visit to his patient: what steps were immediately taken for the relief of the sufferer we need not describe. They were doubtless well intended, and were, perhaps, as well adapted to stave off the coming evil day as any that Dr Fillgrave, or even the great Sir Omicron Pie might have used.
And then Dr Thorne arrived.
"Oh, doctor! doctor!" exclaimed Lady Scatcherd, almost hanging round his neck in the hall. "What are we to do? What are we to do? He's very bad." ”

“ The squire sat looking at him, hardly knowing how to proceed. It seemed to him, that the fact of a young man and a young lady being in love with each other was not a thing to be left to arrange itself, particularly, seeing the rank of life in which they were placed. But the doctor seemed to be of a different opinion.
"But, Dr Thorne, there is no man on God's earth who knows my affairs as well as you do; and in knowing mine, you know Frank's. Do you think it possible that they should marry each other?" ”

“ Dr. Thorne's pretensions, mixed with his subversive professional democratic tendencies, his seven-and-sixpenny visits, added to his utter disregard of Lady Arabella's airs, were too much for her spirit. He brought Frank through his first troubles, and that at first ingratiated her; he was equally successful with the early dietary of Augusta and Beatrice; but, as his success was obtained in direct opposition to the Courcy Castle nursery principles, this hardly did much in his favour. ”

“ Fillgrave,' said Dr. Thorne, now absolutely laughing, 'that you should determine to take my bread out of my mouth? I am not interfering with your patient. I have come here simply with reference to money matters appertaining to Sir Roger.'
'Money matters! Very well—very well; money matters. That is your idea of medical practice! Very well—very well. Is my post-chaise at the door? I'll publish it all to the medical world—every word—every word of it, every word of it.'
'Publish what, you unreasonable man?'
'Man! sir; whom do you call a man? ”

“ She was, therefore, a little surprised, and for a few moments overawed by the doctor's manner; but she soon recovered herself, remembering, doubtless, that fortune favours none but the brave.
"I make no complaint, Dr Thorne," she said, after assuming a tone more befitting a de Courcy than that hitherto used, "I make no complaint either as regards you or Mary."
"You are very kind, Lady Arabella."
"But I think that it is my duty to put a stop, a peremptory stop to anything like a love affair between my son and your niece."
"I have not the least objection in life. ”

“ If his services could be made available under any other circumstances, he would go to Greshamsbury as fast as post-horses could carry him.
Then, indeed, there was war in Barsetshire. If there was on Dr. Thorne's cranium one bump more developed than another, it was that of combativeness. Not that the doctor was a bully or even pugnacious, in the usual sense of the word; he had no disposition to provoke a fight, no propense love of quarrelling; but there was that in him which would allow him to yield to no attack. Neither in argument nor in contest would he ever allow himself to be wrong ”

“ As he had contemplated, no one spoke to him; but some people did no doubt talk among themselves. Whether or not the exact truth was surmised by any, it matters not to say; with absolute exactness, probably not; with great approach to it, probably yes. By one person, at any rate, no guess whatever was made; no thought relative to Dr. Thorne's niece ever troubled him; no idea that Mary Scatcherd had left a child in England ever occurred to him: and that person was Roger Scatcherd, Mary's brother.
To one friend, and one only, did the doctor tell the whole truth, and that was to the squire. ”

“ Thorne, there must be some chance—isn't there any chance? That man says that he's going on so well.'
'I fear there is no chance—as far as my knowledge goes there is no chance.'
'Then why does that chattering magpie tell such lies to a woman? Ah me! ah me! ah me! oh, doctor! doctor! what shall I do? what shall I do?' and poor Lady Scatcherd, fairly overcome by her sorrow, burst out crying like a great school-girl.
And yet what had her husband done for her that she should thus weep for him? Would not her life be much more blessed when this cause of all her troubles should be removed from her? ”

“ I only do so to induce you to be more explicit in naming your heir.'
They both remained silent for a while, during which the baronet poured out from his hidden resource a glass of brandy, and swallowed it.
'When a man is taken aback suddenly by such tidings as these, he must take a drop of something, eh, doctor?'
Dr. Thorne did not see the necessity; but the present, he felt, was no time for arguing the point.
'Come, Thorne, where is the girl? You must tell me that. She is my niece, and I have a right to know. She shall come here, and I will do something for her. By the Lord! ”

“ Dr. Thorne had come to the house somewhat before dinner-time, at Mr. Gresham's request, and was now sitting with the squire in his own book-room—so called—while Mary was talking to some of the girls up stairs.
'I must have ten or twelve thousand pounds; ten at the very least,' said the squire, who was sitting in his usual arm-chair, close to his littered table, with his head supported on his hand, looking very unlike the father of an heir to a noble property, who had that day come of age. ”

“ But when the struggle came, it was to him a fearful one; not the less fearful because there was no one, no not one friend in all the world, to whom he could open his mind and speak out honestly what was in his heart. To Dr. Thorne he might perhaps have done so had his intercourse with the doctor been sufficiently frequent ”

“ Thorne had seen something, and it may be questioned whether the memory of that was more alluring than the reality now existing at Greshamsbury.
Of the two women Dr. Thorne much preferred his humbler friend, and to her he made his visits, not in the guise of a doctor, but as a neighbor. "Well, my lady," he said, as he sat down by her on a broad garden-seat—all the world called Lady Scatcherd "my lady"—"and how do these long summer days agree with you? Your roses are twice better out than any I see up at the big house."
"You may well call them long, doctor. They're long enough, surely." ”

“ Perhaps he was not wrong; for it may be that his lips were more eloquent than would have been his words.
"What's the matter?" said Dr Thorne, opening his eyes wide, and addressing Lady Scatcherd over the head and across the hairs of the irritated man below him. "What on earth is the matter? Is anything wrong with Sir Roger?"
"Oh, laws, doctor!" said her ladyship. "Oh, laws; I'm sure it ain't my fault. Here's Dr Fillgrave in a taking, and I'm quite ready to pay him,—quite. If a man gets paid, what more can he want?" And she again held out the five-pound note over Dr Fillgrave's head. ”

“ I don't want to take her; but surely there can be no harm in her coming here to see us? I can provide for her, Thorne, remember that. I can provide for her without reference to Louis Philippe. What are ten or fifteen thousand pounds to me? Remember that, Thorne."
Dr Thorne did remember it. In that interview he remembered many things, and much passed through his mind on which he felt himself compelled to resolve somewhat too suddenly. Would he be justified in rejecting, on behalf of Mary, the offer of pecuniary provision which this rich relative seemed so well inclined to make? ”

“ But I can compel Dr Thorne to look after my interests. I can force him to foreclose. And to tell you the truth, Gazebee, unless some arrangement is proposed to me which I shall think advantageous, I shall do so at once. There is near a hundred thousand pounds owing to me; yes to me. Thorne is only a name in the matter. The money is my money; and, by ––––, I mean to look after it."
"Have you any doubt, Sir Louis, as to the money being secure?"
"Yes, I have. It isn't so easy to have a hundred thousand pounds secured. ”

“ He has not had spirit enough to keep the bottle from him; and it was that, and that only, that most behoved to be done. I doubt you won't find him in this world when you arrive here.'
Dr. Thorne started instantly. Even though he might have to meet Dr. Fillgrave, he could not hesitate, for he went not as a doctor to the dying man, but as the trustee under Sir Roger's will. Moreover, as Lady Scatcherd had said, he was her only friend, and he could not desert her at such a moment for an army of Fillgraves. He told Mary he should not return that night ”

“ But even were it so, I do not see why I should object.'
'Not object!'
'As I said before, Frank is, to my thinking, an excellent young man. Why should I object?'
'Dr. Thorne!' said her ladyship, now also rising from her chair in a state of too evident perturbation.
'Why should I object? It is for you, Lady Arabella, to look after your lambs; for me to see that, if possible, no harm shall come to mine. If you think that Mary is an improper acquaintance for your children, it is for you to guide them; for you and for their father. Say what you think fit to your own daughter ”

“ And now we have but one word left for the doctor. 'If you don't come and dine with me,' said the squire to him, when they found themselves both deserted, 'mind; I shall come and dine with you.' And on this principle they seem to act. Dr. Thorne continues to extend his practice, to the great disgust of Dr. Fillgrave; and when Mary suggested to him that he should retire, he always boxed her ears. He knows the way, however, to Boxall Hill as well as ever he did, and is willing to acknowledge, that the tea there is almost as good as it ever was at Greshamsbury. ”

“ I always am quite wrong.'
'Quite wrong in mixing up two things; Doctor Thorne as an acquaintance, and Dr. Thorne as a doctor.'
'It is dreadful to have him here, even standing in the room with me. How can one talk to one's doctor openly and confidentially when one looks upon him as one's worst enemy?' And Lady Arabella, softening, almost melted into tears. ”

“ On the Sunday afternoon there arrived at Greshamsbury a man and a horse from Boxall Hill, bearing a letter from Lady Scatcherd to Dr Thorne, earnestly requesting the doctor's immediate attendance. "I fear everything is over with poor Louis," wrote the unhappy mother. "It has been very dreadful. Do come to me; I have no other friend, and I am nearly worn through with it. The man from the city"—she meant Dr Fillgrave—"comes every day, and I dare say he is all very well, but he has never done much good. He has not had spirit enough to keep the bottle from him ”

“ So it was with Augusta Gresham, when, with careful brow, she whispered to her mother that there was something wrong between Frank and Mary Thorne.
"Stop it at once, Arabella: stop it at once," the countess had said; "that, indeed, will be ruin. If he does not marry money, he is lost. Good heavens! the doctor's niece! A girl that nobody knows where she comes from!" ”

“ Is Lady Scatcherd nice?"
"She is an excellent woman."
"I hope I may know her some day. You are so much there now, uncle; I wonder whether you ever mention me to them. If you do, tell her from me how much I grieve for her."
That same night Dr Thorne again found himself alone with Sir Roger. The sick man was much more tranquil, and apparently more at ease than he had been on the preceding night. He said nothing about his will, and not a word about Mary Thorne; but the doctor knew that Winterbones and a notary's clerk from Barchester had been in the bedroom a great part of the day ”