not uncomfortably theoretic, and if he sometimes explained matters
rather more minutely than might seem of use to the patient, he never
went so far (like some practitioners one has heard of) as to trust to
the explanation alone, but always left behind him an inscrutable
prescription. There were some doctors that left the prescription
without offering any explanation at all; and he did not belong to
that class either, which was, after all, the most vulgar. It will be
seen that I am describing a clever man; and this is really the reason
why Dr. Sloper had become a local celebrity. At the time at which we
are chiefly concerned with him, he was some fifty years of age, and
his popularity was at its height. He was very witty, and he passed
in the best society of New York for a man of the world--which,
indeed, he was, in a very sufficient degree. I hasten to add, to
anticipate possible misconception, that he was not the least of a
charlatan. He was a thoroughly honest man--honest in a degree of
which he had perhaps lacked the opportunity to give the complete
measure; and, putting aside the great good-nature of the circle in
which he practised, which was rather fond of boasting that it
possessed the "brightest" doctor in the country, he daily justified
his claim to the talents attributed to him by the popular voice. He
was an observer, even a philosopher, and to be bright was so natural
to him, and (as the popular voice said) came so easily, that he never
aimed at mere effect, and had none of the little tricks and
pretensions of second-rate reputations. It must be confessed that
fortune had favoured him, and that he had found the path to
prosperity very soft to his tread. He had married at the age of
twenty-seven, for love, a very charming girl, Miss Catherine
Harrington, of New York, who, in addition to her charms, had brought
him a solid dowry. Mrs. Sloper was amiable, graceful, accomplished,
elegant, and in 1820 she had been one of the pretty girls of the