登陆注册
5633700000042

第42章

"It's been mine," he said, "and you can make it yours. Come, I want to talk with you about your future, because I have been thinking very seriously about my own. I want to ask your advice and to give you mine.

I'll commence by asking yours. What do you think of me as a physician?

I know you are able to judge."

She was flattered, in spite of herself. There were long arrears of cool indifference to her own claims in that direction, which she might very well have resented; but she did not. There was that flattery in his question which the junior in any vocation feels in the appeal of his senior; and there was the flattery which any woman feels in a man's recourse to her judgment. Still, she contrived to parry it with a little thrust. "I don't suppose the opinion of a mere homoeopathist can be of any value to a regular practitioner."

He laughed. "You have been a regular practitioner yourself for the last three weeks. What do you think of my management of the case?"

"I have never abandoned my principles," she began.

"Oh, I know all about that? What do you think of me as a doctor?" he persisted.

"Of course I admire you. Why do you ask me that?"

"Because I wished to know. And because I wished to ask you something else. You have been brought up in a city, and I have always lived here in the country, except the two years I was out with the army. Do you think I should succeed if I pulled up here, and settled in Boston?"

"I have not lived in Boston," she answered. "My opinion wouldn't be worth much on that point."

"Yes, it would. You know city people, and what they are. I have seen a good deal of them in my practice at the hotels about here, and some of the ladies--when they happened to feel more comfortable--have advised me to come to Boston." His derision seemed to throw contempt on all her sex; but he turned to her, and asked again earnestly, "What do you think?

Some of the profession know me there. When I left the school, some of the faculty urged me to try my chance in the city."

She waited a moment before she answered. "You know that I must respect your skill, and I believe that you could succeed anywhere. I judge your fitness by my own deficiency. The first time I saw you with Mrs.

Maynard, I saw that you had everything that I hadn't. I saw that I was a failure, and why, and that it would be foolish for me to keep up the struggle."

"Do you mean that you have given it up?" he demanded, with a triumph in which there was no sympathy.

"It has given me up. I never liked it,--I told you that before,--and I never took it up from any ambitious motive. It seemed a shame for me to be of no use in the world; and I hoped that I might do something in a way that seemed natural for women. And I don't give up because I'm unfit as a woman. I might be a man, and still be impulsive and timid and nervous, and everything that I thought I was not."

"Yes, you might be all that, and be a man; but you'd be an exceptional man, and I don't think you're an exceptional woman. If you've failed, it is n't your temperament that's to blame."

"I think it is. The wrong is somewhere in me individually. I know it is."

Dr. Mulbridge, walking beside her, with his hands clasped behind him, threw up his head and laughed. "Well, have it your own way, Miss Breen.

Only I don't agree with you. Why should you wish to spare your sex at your own expense? But that's the way with some ladies, I've noticed.

They approve of what women attempt because women attempt it, and they believe the attempt reflects honor on them. It's tremendous to think what men could accomplish for their sex, if they only hung together as women do. But they can't. They haven't the generosity."

"I think you don't understand me," said Grace, with a severity that amused him. "I wished to regard myself, in taking up this profession, entirely as I believed a man would have regarded himself."

"And were you able to do it?"

"No," she unintentionally replied to this unexpected question.

"Haw, haw, haw!" laughed Dr. Mulbridge at her helpless candor. "And are you sure that you give it up as a man would?"

"I don't know how you mean," she said, vexed and bewildered.

"Do you do it fairly and squarely because you believe that you're a failure, or because you partly feel that you have n't been fairly dealt with?"

"I believe that if Mrs. Maynard had had the same confidence in me that she would have had in any man I should not have failed. But every woman physician has a double disadvantage that I hadn't the strength to overcome,--her own inexperience and the distrust of other women."

"Well, whose fault is that?"

"Not the men's. It is the men alone who give women any chance. They are kind and generous and liberal-minded. I have no blame for them, and I have no patience with women who want to treat them as the enemies of women's advancement. Women can't move a step forwards without their sufferance and help. Dr. Mulbridge," she cried, "I wish to apologize for the hasty and silly words I used to you the day I came to ask you to consult with me. I ought to have been grateful to you for consenting at first, and when you took back your consent I ought to have considered your position. You were entirely right. We had no common ground to meet on, and I behaved like a petulant, foolish, vulgar girl!"

"No, no," he protested, laughing in recollection of the scene. "You were all right, and I was in a fix; and if your own fears had n't come to the rescue, I don't know how I should have got out of it. It would have been disgraceful, wouldn't it, to refuse a lady's. request. You don't know how near I was to giving way. I can tell you, now that it's all over. I had never seen a lady of our profession before," he added hastily, "and my curiosity was up. I always had my doubts about the thoroughness of women's study, and I should have liked to see where your training failed.

I must say I found it very good,--I've told you that. You wouldn't fail individually: you would fail because you are a woman."

"I don't believe that," said Grace.

"Well, then, because your patients are women. It's all one. What will you do?"

"I shall not do anything. I shall give it all up."

同类推荐
  • Acres of Diamonds

    Acres of Diamonds

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Lost City

    The Lost City

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 雅量

    雅量

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 隋唐嘉话

    隋唐嘉话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 续墨客挥犀

    续墨客挥犀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 幻武未来

    幻武未来

    欧阳阿米德:“导师说过,要战斗至死!”诸葛龙轩:“阿米德,导师也说过,在绝对的力量面前、就算是神也要低下他那高傲的头颅!”欧阳阿米德:“是吗?我不记得了!”诸葛龙轩:“愚蠢!”诸葛龙轩面对曾经的兄弟不忍下手,但倘若他不动手,那么等待着阿米德的只有死亡……
  • 一剑画仙

    一剑画仙

    一入苍岚梦成空,半世扶摇路途凶。痴情之路谁如意,星辰之巅血染红。画仙一剑摄天地,十方神器碎苍穹。争霸之路谁为峰,一路皆是命中途。
  • 邪帝:逆天狂妃

    邪帝:逆天狂妃

    她,现代金牌特工,一场意外身亡,一朝穿越成苏家废材大小姐,从小被世人所不耻,受尽鄙夷,从小在家足不外户,但是他的父亲是让敌人闻风丧胆的护国大将军,皇上下令赐她与太子的婚约,因父亲疼爱,谁也不敢退婚,一场重生搅得这大陆风起云涌,从此将走上强者之路。。他,冷酷无情,杀伐果断,又有着腹黑的智慧,众神都被这位千古绝一的天才少年为之颤抖。长相俊美无双,乃至整个六界都无法找出媲美之人,因此桃花拥挤而来。实力翻手为云,覆手为雨,一怒整个天下都会发生错位,拥有着颠覆天下的实力,却不愿坐在那高高的位置,谁都无法掌控这位颠覆天下的王者,漫长的岁月让他厌烦至极,有日下凡游历却不想遇到了她。且看他们在这六界中笑傲群雄
  • 陌上花开之锦璃

    陌上花开之锦璃

    “遇见他,是我一生最好的事。”……初见,她还是溪水里怡然自得的锦鲤;分离,她已是龙王最疼爱的幺女。她恨他囚她父王、欺她龙族。那么拿命来偿还。“告诉她……”他用命偿了对她的愧疚,不悔。恨他入骨不及相思成疾,她释然,“从此以后再无宠妃锦璃,我是太师瑾离”。转身,她为他完成使命,图谋天下。从锦鲤化身为龙女,从龙女变成宠妃……一步步直至国士无双。锦璃披荆斩棘,而身边已经没有了他。“我只比他晚了一步。”帝王心,情根深种。终生误,到底是谁负了谁情深……
  • 水浒大泼皮

    水浒大泼皮

    林冲已经上梁山了,杨志也准备卖刀了,破旧的茅草屋里,穿越成泼皮牛二的马凯还在准备着讹人。不好,他又开始耍泼了!!(有情有义,才见水浒。)
  • 黑洞危机:冥王星卷

    黑洞危机:冥王星卷

    五个少年历经艰难险阻,终于搜集到了天王石和海王石,而这一消息不胫而走,传到了宇宙黑暗势力之首——哈迪斯耳中,他想要夺走探险小龙队搜集到的行星石,以此实施自己早已预谋的邪恶计划。在小龙队员们乘坐飞船到达冥王星附近后,他们却遇到了热情好客的卡戎星人。借助卡戎星人的宇宙飞船,探险小龙队的五个少年终于穿过了遍布危险的柯柏伊带,终于抵达冥王星。在穿越了冰雪深渊和巨型迷宫后,他们到达了哈迪斯所在的地下宫殿,并在那里与哈迪斯展开了最终决战。
  • 恶魔住隔壁:国民女神,请指教

    恶魔住隔壁:国民女神,请指教

    他是帝都矜贵高冷毫无人性的恶魔。但是他只对一个女孩宠爱有加,简直宠的毫无人性。他宠她,她离他千万之远。直到某一天,某女悄咪咪地溜回来,搂着大熊睡觉,可是她万万没想到自己搂了一个恶魔。从此——“云晚轻,你睡了我现在对我负责。”云晚轻指着他怒吼:“韩末泽,敢说他妈不是你睡了老子?”(宠文,日常高甜,日常一搞笑趴。)
  • 以孝选官:孝与古代选官制度(中国孝文化丛书)

    以孝选官:孝与古代选官制度(中国孝文化丛书)

    本书讲述了历代以孝选官的制度。先秦时期“孝治天下”的观念还仅仅停留在理论层面,“以孝选官”也尚处于萌芽状态。汉代在选官制度上体现出对孝的提倡,汉惠帝、吕后开汉代“举孝授官”之先河。汉代以后,“以孝选官”的现象承袭相沿,继续存在于历代选官的体系中。
  • 国境以南 太阳以西

    国境以南 太阳以西

    “追求得到之日即其终止之时,寻觅的过程亦即失却的过程。”《国境以南,太阳以西》讲述了三十七岁的“我”不仅事业有成,还拥有娇美的妻子和可爱的女儿。但“我”始终念念不忘青梅竹马岛本。俩人少年时阴差阳错地遗憾错过,二十年后,经历了失败婚姻的岛本再次出现在“我”的面前,二人迅速坠入爱河。然而,正当“我”准备奋不顾身、抛弃一切要和岛本在一起时,岛本却不知所踪。万幸的是,已然支离破碎的婚姻在妻子的原谅下得到了支撑和修补。兜兜转转,儿时记忆最终存放在心底的某处角落,一切回归平淡。
  • 女人约会全攻略:做约会中光芒四射的魅力女人

    女人约会全攻略:做约会中光芒四射的魅力女人

    约会是女人收获爱情的必经过程。无论是自由恋爱,还是见面相亲,约会都是必不可少的一道“大餐”。毫不夸张地说,约会决定着女人一生的幸福。然而,不是所有的女人都擅长约会,不然为何有的女人对约会的回忆美好而浪漫,有的女人对约会的回忆却只能用“不堪回首来表达?本书就是针对女人约会中遇到的各种情况来为女人提供行之有效的应对策略,让单身的女人通过一次次美好的约会征服心仪的男子,通过自身的言行举止来吸引优秀男子的眼球,从而找到自己的真爱,收获梦寐以求的爱情。