He went very steadily to work all the same; advertising in medical
journals, reading testimonials, sifting character and qualifications;
and just when the elderly maiden ladies of Hollingford thought that
they had convinced their contemporary that he was as young as ever, he
startled them by bringing his new partner, Mr. Gibson, to call upon
them, and began 'slyly,' as these ladies said, to introduce him into
practice. And 'who was this Mr Gibson?' they asked, and echo might
answer the question, if she liked, for no one else did. No one ever in
all his life knew anything more of his antecedents than the Hollingford
people might have found out the first day they saw him: that he was
tall, grave, rather handsome than otherwise; thin enough to be called
'a very genteel figure,' in those days, before muscular Christianity
had come into vogue; speaking with a slight Scotch accent; and, as one
good lady observed, 'so very trite in his conversation,' by which she
meant sarcastic. As to his birth, parentage, and education,--the
favourite conjecture of Hollingford society was, that he was the
illegitimate son of a Scotch duke, by a Frenchwoman; and the grounds
for this conjecture were these:--He spoke with a Scotch accent;
therefore, he must be Scotch. He had a very genteel appearance, an
elegant figure, and was apt--so his ill-wishers said--to give himself
airs. Therefore, his father must have been some person of quality; and,
that granted, nothing was easier than to run this supposition up all
the notes of the scale of the peerage,--baronet, baron, viscount, earl,
marquis, duke. Higher they dared not go, though one old lady,
acquainted with English history, hazarded the remark, that 'she
believed that one or two of the Stuarts--hem--had not always been,--
ahem--quite correct in their--conduct; and she fancied such--ahem--
things ran in families.' But, in popular opinion, Mr. Gibson's father
always remained a duke; nothing more.