glad that they didn't convict you, and as for old Bell, he's as mad as a
hatter, though of course everybody knows what the jury meant--the judge
was pretty straight about it, wasn't he?--he chooses to think that it
amounts to calling him a liar. Well, now I come to think of it, there
are one or two things--so perhaps he is. Good-afternoon, doctor. Let's
see, you have the original and I will take the duplicate," and he
vanished.

When the clerk had gone I went on thinking. Things were worse than I had
believed, for it seemed that I was not even clear of my legal troubles.
Already this trial had cost me a great deal, and I was in no position
to stand the financial strain of a second appearance in the law courts.
Also the man was right; although I had been acquitted on the criminal
charge, if the same evidence were given by Sir John Bell and the nurse
in a civil action, without any manner of doubt I should be cast in heavy
damages. Well, I could only wait and see what happened.

But was it worth while? Was anything worth while? The world had treated
me very cruelly; a villain had lied away my reputation and the world
believed him, so that henceforth I must be one of its outcasts and
black sheep; an object of pity and contempt among the members of my
profession. It was doubtful whether, having been thus exposed and made
bankrupt, I could ever again obtain a respectable practice. Indeed, the
most that I might hope for would be some small appointment on the west
coast of Africa, or any other poisonous place, which no one else would
be inclined to accept, where I might live--until I died.

The question that occurred to me that evening was whether it would not
be wiser on the whole to accept defeat, own myself beaten, and ring
down the curtain--not a difficult matter for a doctor to deal with. The