登陆注册
5386000000292

第292章

"Say, ladies and gentlemen," he proceeded, "that my patient has just come in. His mind is one mass of nervous fancies and caprices, which his friends (with the best possible intentions)have been ignorantly irritating at home. They have been afraid of him, for instance, at night. They have forced him to have somebody to sleep in the room with him, or they have forbidden him, in case of accidents, to lock his door. He comes to me the first night, and says: 'Mind, I won't have anybody in my room!'--'Certainly not!'--'I insist on locking my door.'--'By all means!' In he goes, and locks his door; and there he is, soothed and quieted, predisposed to confidence, predisposed to sleep, by having his own way. 'This is all very well,' you may say; 'but suppose something happens, suppose he has a fit in the night, what then?' You shall see! Hallo, my young friend!" cried the doctor, suddenly addressing the sleepy little boy. "Let's have a game. You shall be the poor sick man, and I'll be the good doctor. Go into that room and lock the door. There's a brave boy!

Have you locked it? Very good! Do you think I can't get at you if I like? I wait till you're asleep--I press this little white button, hidden here in the stencilled pattern of the outer wall--the mortise of the lock inside falls back silently against the door-post--and I walk into the room whenever I like. The same plan is pursued with the window. My capricious patient won't open it at night, when he ought. I humor him again. 'Shut it, dear sir, by all means!' As soon as he is asleep, I pull the black handle hidden here, in the corner of the wall. The window of the room inside noiselessly opens, as you see. Say the patient's caprice is the other way--he persists in opening the window when he ought to shut it. Let him! by all means, let him! I pull a second handle when he is snug in his bed, and the window noiselessly closes in a moment. Nothing to irritate him, ladies and gentlemen--absolutely nothing to irritate him! But I haven't done with him yet. Epidemic disease, in spite of all my precautions, may enter this Sanitarium, and may render the purifying of the sick-room necessary. Or the patient's case may be complicated by other than nervous malady--say, for instance, asthmatic difficulty of breathing. In the one case, fumigation is necessary; in the other, additional oxygen in the air will give relief. The epidemic nervous patient says, 'I won't be smoked under my own nose!' The asthmatic nervous patient gasps with terror at the idea of a chemical explosion in his room. Inoiselessly fumigate one of them; I noiselessly oxygenize the other, by means of a simple Apparatus fixed outside in the corner here. It is protected by this wooden casing; it is locked with my own key; and it communicates by means of a tube with the interior of the room. Look at it!"With a preliminary glance at Miss Gwilt, the doctor unlocked the lid of the wooden casing, and disclosed inside nothing more remarkable than a large stone jar, having a glass funnel, and a pipe communicating with the wall, inserted in the cork which closed the mouth of it. With another look at Miss Gwilt, the doctor locked the lid again, and asked, in the blandest manner, whether his System was intelligible now?

"I might introduce you to all sorts of other contrivances of the same kind," he resumed, leading the way downstairs; "but it would be only the same thing over and over again. A nervous patient who always has his own way is a nervous patient who is never worried;and a nervous patient who is never worried is a nervous patient cured. There it is in a nutshell! Come and see the Dispensary, ladies; the Dispensary and the kitchen next!"Once more, Miss Gwilt dropped behind the visitors, and waited alone--looking steadfastly at the Room which the doctor had opened, and at the apparatus which the doctor had unlocked.

Again, without a word passing between them, she had understood him. She knew, as well as if he had confessed it, that he was craftily putting the necessary temptation in her way, before witnesses who could speak to the superficially innocent acts which they had seen, if anything serious happened. The apparatus, originally constructed to serve the purpose of the doctor's medical crotchets, was evidently to be put to some other use, of which the doctor himself had probably never dreamed till now. And the chances were that, before the day was over, that other use would be privately revealed to her at the right moment, in the presence of the right witness. "Armadale will die this time," she said to herself, as she went slowly down the stairs. "The doctor will kill him, by my hands."The visitors were in the Dispensary when she joined them. All the ladies were admiring the beauty of the antique cabinet; and, as a necessary consequence, all the ladies were desirous of seeing what was inside. The doctor--after a preliminary look at Miss Gwilt--good-humoredly shook his head. "There is nothing to interest you inside," he said. "Nothing but rows of little shabby bottles containing the poisons used in medicine which I keep under lock and key. Come to the kitchen, ladies, and honor me with your advice on domestic matters below stairs." He glanced again at Miss Gwilt as the company crossed the hall, with a look which said plainly, "Wait here."In another quarter of an hour the doctor had expounded his views on cookery and diet, and the visitors (duly furnished with prospectuses) were taking leave of him at the door. "Quite an intellectual treat!" they said to each other, as they streamed out again in neatly dressed procession through the iron gates.

"And what a very superior man!"

The doctor turned back to the Dispensary, humming absently to himself, and failing entirely to observe the corner of the hall in which Miss Gwilt stood retired. After an instant's hesitation, she followed him. The as sistant was in the room when she entered it--summoned by his employer the moment before.

同类推荐
  • 西方发愿文注

    西方发愿文注

    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。
  • 蚁术诗选

    蚁术诗选

    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。
  • 古尊宿语录目录

    古尊宿语录目录

    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。
  • 蒙求

    蒙求

    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 Land of Footprints

    The Land of Footprints

    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
  • 一吻定情:首席的纯情甜心

    一吻定情:首席的纯情甜心

    一份遗嘱,让她陷入恶魔牢笼,成为了恶魔口的的猎物,被强行绑走……再相遇,她才知道,他是姐姐的未婚夫,而她,再一次被恶魔强取豪夺,绑回别墅囚禁,被迫嫁给了他……无爱的婚姻,让她无助求饶,他阴邪宣告“想走?等我高兴了再说!”
  • 黑客少女的柯南世界

    黑客少女的柯南世界

    来到这个世界的第一天,身为黑客的她就拥有了一款神奇软件。系统:拥有我,你就可以变大变小变漂亮!不需要,我只想回到现实世界啊啊啊!!拥有这款软件的另一个人是来自2013年的男子。第二个穿越者同样在酒厂工作,这几年为了副厂长的位置拼命努力。为了回到三次元,篡改了系统,还坑了一帮人。可就是这样,宫野志保还是喜欢上了他。某格:为什么喜欢我?哀:因为你帅PS:非言情肥皂剧,不拆原著CP
  • 电梯魅影

    电梯魅影

    这是一部短篇悬疑小说集。大城市的人们,尤其朝九晚五的上班族们,总有着或多或少的“电梯情缘”,或因电梯太慢而迟到,或因电梯故障而受困,或在电梯里邂逅浪漫恋情……只要你留意听,即便是“植物人”也有很多故事。一对夫妻,旅游回来,妻子觉得丈夫已经死去,丈夫觉得妻子是个妖怪……
  • Sintram and His Companions

    Sintram and His Companions

    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。
  • 深蓝的味道

    深蓝的味道

    深蓝色是澄澈而又明静的,是她处在黑暗中向往阳光的味道,包裹着亲情,友情,爱情。
  • 赤脚仙尊

    赤脚仙尊

    年少的张长生在五岁掉进石洞中,获得仙缘。七岁被老神医相中收为弟子,开始学医之路。九岁拜入山南门,遭修仙者毒手却侥幸存活。他将何去何从!十岁意外的获得修仙者的物品,开始了修仙之路。十二岁,正式入得修仙门派青云派。
  • This Boy's Life

    This Boy's Life

    This unforgettable memoir, by one of our most gifted writers, introduces us to the young Toby Wolff, by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move, yet they develop an extraordinarily close, almost telepathic relationship. As Toby fights for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather, his experiences are at once poignant and comical, and Wolff does a masterful job of re-creating the frustrations and cruelties of adolescence. His various schemes - running away to Alaska, forging checks, and stealing cars - lead eventually to an act of outrageous self-invention that releases him into a new world of possibility.
  • 我的教育信条

    我的教育信条

    《我的教育信条》以杜威的名篇《我的教育信条》命名,分为教育心理、教育哲学、教育实验三个板块,既着意澄清了人们关于一些心理现象的误解及相关概念的误用,又表达了杜威关于教育学的核心主张和儿童研究的重要观点,还介绍了杜威任职于芝加哥大学期间所进行的富有创意的学校实验。
  • 十年十世

    十年十世

    苏忆原本是个小医女,乱世里的医女。她没什么大的理想,医术也不是顶好的,也就够乱世里保住命,糊口饭吃。生平最大的愿望就是女子行医不再被世人诟病,忙时被人唤大夫,闲时被人唤姑娘,如果可以再养只看家的狗,最好能护着她的那种。郁承君是被父母嫌弃的弃子,也是南唐唯一的皇子,更是太子,只是颠沛流离的过往,转瞬翻脸的红颜,让他对身边所有的人都抱有戒心。哪怕存粹的如水一般干净,他也要搅浑了才觉得正常。他一直信奉,天下熙熙,皆为利来,皆为利往,但凡他所接触的一切,总要算计过了,才觉得是真的。原本不该有交集的人,却因为乱世而相遇。但到底不是一个世界的人,永远也走不到一起去。苏忆最后想的还是,她真的努力的在学怎么在他身边生存了,可还是不及他万一。
  • 海贼之B叔无敌

    海贼之B叔无敌

    倒霉的主角:为什么这氪金手游如此坑爹?郁闷的主角:为什么我的颜值没了?兴奋的主角:我的外挂终于上线了!弟控的主角:我愚蠢的欧豆豆啊!!最后的主角:来吧,命运之子!今天之后再也没有大海贼时代了!!!备注:封面是穿越前的主角建个QQ群,有兴趣的书友可以加一下:938850353