of doing so: he had never before had to perform so painful a duty; but,
as a duty which he owed to his profession, he must perform it. With
every feeling of respect for a Lady,--a sick guest at Greshamsbury,--and
for Mr Gresham, he must decline to attend in conjunction with Dr
Thorne. 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; never at least to anyone but
himself; and on behalf of his special hobbies, he was ready to meet the
world at large.

It will therefore be understood, that when such a gauntlet was thus
thrown in his very teeth by Dr Fillgrave, he was not slow to take it
up. He addressed a letter to the Barsetshire Conservative Standard, in
which he attacked Dr Fillgrave with some considerable acerbity. Dr
Fillgrave responded in four lines, saying that on mature consideration
he had made up his mind not to notice any remarks that might be made on
him by Dr Thorne in the public press. The Greshamsbury doctor then
wrote another letter, more witty and much more severe than the last;
and as this was copied into the Bristol, Exeter, and Gloucester papers,
Dr Fillgrave found it very difficult to maintain the magnanimity of his
reticence. It is sometimes becoming enough for a Mediterranean to wrap
himself in the dignified toga of silence, and proclaim himself