Dr. Whitty

“ I'll make that League sit up. I shall have a glorious time with them if only they're sober enough to take in what I say."
"You'd better get Father Henaghan to quiet them," said the colonel.
"Not at all. I'm not going to hide behind the priest. I mean to see the thing through myself."
At the hour fixed for the trial Dr. Whitty stepped jauntily into the League rooms. He was received in gloomy silence, broken only by an order from Thady Glynn to stand at the end of the table. The doctor took a vacant chair and sat down. Thady Glynn scowled at him. Dr. Whitty smiled pleasantly by way of reply. ”

“ Whitty.
"I shall ask Mr. Jackson to do so, too. That is the only kind of advertisement we adopt. As a rule, we find it most effective."
Dr. Whitty went straight to the priest's house as soon as Miss Mulhall left him.
"Good morning. Father Henaghan," he said. "I came round to have a chat with you about Lady Claneder and her Guild. She's a very remarkable woman and engaged on a most important work."
"Is it her," said the priest, "that sent me a lot of books and papers about the proper way of feeding babies?" ”

“ Whitty objects to it, which is as good as telling us that only for her it's the tune he'd be best pleased with himself of any you could give him. It's the doctor that we're striving to please and not the young lady. Believe you me, if the band gives out 'Love's Young Dream' in the way it ought—and it's what the band will do—the doctor will be well satisfied. If he didn't want that tune played why would he be going to the expense of sending a telegram which can't have cost him much under one-and-sixpence? ”

“ Eccles. "Do I look like a man who'd come all the way to Ballintra because he had toothache?"
"You do not," said Thady judicially. "When I take a good look at you I can see well that you're not that sort of man."
"Dr. Whitty and I are old friends," said Mr. Eccles. "He and I lived in the same lodgings when he was walking the hospitals and I was going through the engineering school."
Thady Glynn was satisfied. He started his guest on the way to Dr. Whitty's house and then returned to his own bar. He found Michael Geraghty there. ”

“ You'll be quite safe. I won't have a man in the room except Father Henaghan, Mr. Jackson—you'd like to have him, of course, when you're having the priest—and myself. We don't count. Clergy and doctors occupy a sort of intermediate position between the two sexes. We're not really either one thing or the other."
Next day Dr. Whitty felt rather less confident about the success of his mission to the town of Ballintra. The daylight of an October morning is not a good tonic for a fading enthusiasm. Tea—breakfast tea—does not exhilarate as champagne does. ”

“ Challoner, "you'll see the priest, Dr. Whitty, and talk to him. My doctor has strictly forbidden me to undertake any work I can possibly avoid. Otherwise, of course, I should not dream of encroaching on your time."
"I will," said Dr. Whitty. "I'll see him to-morrow. I'll work the whole thing up for you. You'll want women and not men at the meeting?"
"Certainly. Get all the women you can. It's a woman's question, and it ought to be settled by women. ”

“ He paused and was evidently engaged in multiplying eight guineas by thirteen, a sum difficult to do without a pencil and a piece of paper.
"You'll be in a position to marry," said the colonel.
"Yes," said Dr. Whitty, when he had finished his sum, "I shall."
A week later Herbert Hatfield arrived, and for some days Colonel Beresford saw nothing of the doctor. He felt a good deal of curiosity about the progress of the new cure for inebriety, and, meeting Michael Geraghty on the road, took the opportunity of trying to find out what was going on. ”

“ Would you mind going down and asking when the next steamer leaves? I really daren't venture out of the room. I should be absolutely certain to meet them again. They'll be lying in wait for me. If there is a steamer in the middle of the night, we'll take it in preference to any other. I should like, if possible, to get off while the Elphinstones are in bed."
Mrs. Whitty left the room at once. She even left it hurriedly. Dr. Whitty, if he had been in a mood to reason calmly, might have prophesied a happy married life from this prompt obedience to what must have been an inconvenient command. ”

“ An Irish crowd is always courteous, and it was felt quite rightly that a prayer for the welfare of Ireland would be regarded as an insult to Colonel Beresford. Dr. Whitty watched the scene anxiously, casting hurried glances from the dogcart to the convent gate, and back from the convent gate to the dog-cart. He saw Mr. Thady Glynn start, saw him make a remark which he supposed, from the gesticulation which accompanied it, to be a violent oath. The colonel drove on. Dr. Whitty saw Michael Geraghty seize Thady by the arm and whisper eagerly to him. ”

“ Eccles at the door. Michael Geraghty, who was standing disconsolately near the doctor's house, took off his hat and bowed humbly as Mr. Eccles passed him. Then he joined Dr. Whitty.
"Did you get him persuaded, doctor?"
"I did not. I tried my best with him, Michael, but I failed."
"It couldn't be expected that you'd do anything else," said Michael. "He's a hard man that, as hard as e'er a one ever I met."
"Don't give up heart, Michael. We're not beat yet by a long way."
"It's not easy to see what more we can do." ”

“ Anyway, who'd go to the lecture?"
"If nobody goes," said the doctor, "you'll be none the worse off for having it, so I suppose you'll give us the schoolroom."
The discussion ended, as such discussions usually did end, in Dr. Whitty getting what he wanted. He walked down to Thady Glynn's hotel, where Miss Mulhall was staying, and announced the result of his mission with an air of triumph. Miss Mulhall did not seem so pleased and grateful as he expected. Her face wore a troubled expression.
"Nothing wrong, I hope?" said Dr. Whitty. "The colonel hasn't gone back on you in any way, has he? ”

“ And it wouldn't be any harm if he did, for he hasn't taken his measuring tape with him. He's gone to see Dr. Whitty, if you want to know. I'm sure of that, for he asked me the way to his house. It seems the doctor and him is old friends."
"If he's gone there it's all right," said Michael. "The doctor's a good friend of mine. He'll put in a word for me."
"You don't want him, or any other one, to be putting in a word for you, if so be that your pier's all right."
"I do not, of course. But it'll do no harm, anyway. Them inspectors from Dublin is queer at times." ”

“ Colonel Beresford grew extremely red in the face. Dr. Whitty suspected that he was only restrained from swearing by the presence of Mrs. Willoughby. The colonel was before all a gentleman, and respected the feelings of the lady beside him. Dr. Whitty edged a little away from him.
"What this deputation wishes to lay before you," said Father Henaghan, "is the drawback that this town suffers from the want of a pier. It's well known that the development of the fisheries of this coast is one of the greatest boons which a sympathetic Government could confer on our poor people." ”

“ Whitty, and they looked at him suspiciously. In Ireland the guardians of law and order have to be suspicious. Dr. Whitty seized the bulb by which the shutter of his camera was released, and photographed them. He hoped the focus would turn out to be right. The Resident Magistrates were pleased. The photograph was a tribute to their personal importance. They passed on without molesting Dr. Whitty. The barrister and the Member of Parliament, escorted by Thady Glynn, came next. Dr. Whitty hailed Thady, and while the party turned round to look at him secured another photograph. ”

“ When the petition had been dispatched with about thirty signatures attached to it, Dr. Whitty had another interview with Michael Geraghty.
"Michael," he said, "it won't do for you simply to sit down and wait for the Board to come along and buy your anchors. You must stir yourself and work things up a bit."
"Is it a public meeting you have in your mind?"
"It is not. A public meeting is an excellent thing in its way, but I strongly suspect that the Board will send down my old friend Eccles to look into this matter. You remember Eccles, don't you?" ”

“ The people here are peaceful, and have a great regard for me; but they will probably shoot him at sight if he appears among them again. Give my love to Annie and tell her to try her young man with a steak and a bottle of porter. He wants fattening up, otherwise he seems all right, and ought to succeed in life, if persistence will help him. Send me a bit of wedding-cake when the affair culminates, and believe me your affectionate nephew,
"George Whitty"
There was, as the doctor anticipated, a row, or rather four separate rows, next day. ”

“ We're not doing anything wrong."
"Lucy," he said, "you were just as much annoyed as I was this morning at breakfast in the hotel when those people at the next table looked at us and giggled."
"They were extremely rude. I can't imagine how people can have such bad manners."
"I rather think," said Dr. Whitty, "that I saw them again at the station just before the train started. I'm nearly sure it was the same man. I hope they're not on the steamer. Hang it! there they are!"
A man, perhaps forty years of age, neatly dressed and having a certain air of confident superiority, came on deck. ”

“ THE HONEYMOON DR. WHITTY and his friend Eccles of the Congested Districts Board sat together at dinner in a Dublin hotel. They had a small table to themselves in a corner of the dining-room. Intimate conversation became possible when the waiter had brought them their coffee and ceased to hover round them. Dr. Whitty's marriage was to take place the next morning, and Eccles found a bachelor's delight in placing before him the exceedingly awkward position in which a man finds himself on such occasions. ”

“ The whole work will be at a standstill, and Lady Claneder will be greatly vexed."
"I shouldn't like that to happen," said Dr. Whitty. "She's such an admirable woman it would be the greatest pity to upset her in any way. But don't be despondent, Miss Mulhall. Give the lecture yourself. We'll all be just as pleased. In fact, a lecture of that sort—an intimate talk, so to speak, to women about what is, after all, principally women's business—is much better delivered by a woman. ”

“ No self-respecting girl would stand it."
"I shall explain to Lucy beforehand," said the doctor, "why I'm doing it. She'll understand."
"No, she won't. And I strongly recommend you not to try. Take my word for it, Whitty——"
"You talk," said the doctor, "as if you were a Turk, and had been married a dozen times or more; whereas you don't really know any more about it than I do, if as much."
"Well," said Eccles, "go your own way; but if it ends in a judicial separation or a permanent estrangement, don't blame me. I've done the best I could to warn you of the risk you're running." ”

“ Whitty is a man of cheerful disposition. It has become necessary, in consequence of a serious nervous breakdown, to secure for my son a period of complete rest and quiet. I think it desirable that he should be under the supervision of a competent medical man, although I trust he will not require actual treatment, and it is absolutely necessary that his surroundings should be bright and cheerful. ”

“ Whitty was a good-natured man, and was always ready to help anyone who was in a difficulty. He felt for the master of the workhouse. He also had a natural taste for solving difficult problems, and the question of the sailor's religion attracted him. ”

“ Of course, not having any children, she naturally wants something to occupy her mind."
"You can't expect all women to have children," said the doctor tolerantly. "There'd be too many children in the world if they were all like Mrs. Michael Geraghty. She has thirteen."
Mrs. Challoner turned out to be a most charming lady. Her clothes in themselves excited the reverent admiration of Dr. Whitty. He had never in his life seen anything so fine as the black and green evening gown she wore at dinner. ”

“ First the township was left behind; then all its sounds, and there were no sounds at all save the chattering of parrots, the murmuring of leaves, and the swish of Whitty's legs through the ferns and long rank grass. The latter sound was exchanged from time to time for a ringing tread on the dry bed of a creek or in odd spots where the ground was hard and flinty; but the swift restless footsteps never ceased. What was more peculiar, Whitty never raised his eyes from the ground—never directed his steps by one moment's reflection. ”

“ If you live in the English Midlands, as the man I have in mind almost certainly does, nowhere seems farther off than Western Connacht. I shall get my £10 a week to a certainty if I have the luck to light on a man of that sort."
"I dare say you will," said Colonel Beresford. "I'm told that advertising is the one sure means of making money; and your effort is no more immoral than the rest."
"I'm not quite sure," said Dr. Whitty, "that I understand what you mean. Where does the immorality come in?" ”

“ I ought to have come home directly I heard about this demonstration. I might have known. If I'd had a glimmer of common sense, I would have known that there wasn't a man in Ballintra fit to organise a thing of the sort properly except myself."
"What we did," said Michael Geraghty feebly, "was for the best."
Dr. Whitty refused to be pacified. He took his wife by the arm and led her away. The song followed them down the street, beyond the light of the bonfire, to the door of their house.
"There's nothing half so sweet in life as love's young dream." ”