house was not fashionable, nothing could have been more suitable from
a doctor's point of view, as it stood in a little street near the
market-place and absolutely in the centre of the city. Moreover, it had
two beautiful reception chambers on the ground floor, oak-panelled, and
with carved Adam's mantelpieces, which made excellent waiting-rooms for
patients. Some time passed, however, and our thousand pounds, in which
the expense of furnishing had made a considerable hole, was melting
rapidly before those rooms were put to a practical use. Both I and my
wife did all that we could to get practice. We called upon people who
had been friends of my father and grandfather; we attended missionary
and other meetings of a non-political character; regardless of expense
we went so far as to ask old ladies to tea.

They came, they drank the tea and inspected the new furniture; one
of them even desired to see my instruments and when, fearing to give
offence, I complied and produced them, she remarked that they were not
nearly so nice as dear Sir John's, which had ivory handles. Cheerfully
would I have shown her that if the handles were inferior the steel was
quite serviceable, but I swallowed my wrath and solemnly explained that
it was not medical etiquette for a young doctor to use ivory.

Beginning to despair, I applied for one or two minor appointments in
answer to advertisements inserted by the Board of Guardians and other
public bodies. In each case was I not only unsuccessful, but men equally
unknown, though with a greatly inferior college and hospital record,
were chosen over my head. At length, suspecting that I was not being
fairly dealt by, I made inquiries to discover that at the bottom of all
this ill success was none other than Sir John Bell. It appeared that in
several instances, by the shrugs of his thick shoulders and shakes of
his ponderous head, he had prevented my being employed. Indeed, in the