rt of answering for yourself?"

Geoffrey looked at his medical adviser with a sudden curiosity and a
sudden distrust.

"I say," he asked, "how do you come to know what's going on in my
mind--without my telling you of it?"

"It is my business to find out what is going on in people's bodies--and
to do that it is sometimes necessary for me to find out (if I can) what
is going on in their minds. If I have rightly interpreted what was going
on in _your_ mind, there is no need for me to press my question. You
have answered it already."

He turned to Sir Patrick next

"There is a side to this subject," he said, "which you have not touched
on yet. There is a Physical objection to the present rage for muscular
exercises of all sorts, which is quite as strong, in its way, as the
Moral objection. You have stated the consequences as they _may_ affect
the mind. I can state the consequences as they _do_ affect the body."

"From your own experience?"

"From my own experience. I can tell you, as a medical man, that a
proportion, and not by any means a small one, of the young men who are
now putting themselves to violent athletic tests of their strength and
endurance, are taking that course to the serious and permanent injury of
their own health. The public who attend rowing-matches, foot-races, and
other exhibitions of that sort, see nothing but the successful results
of muscular training. Fathers and mothers at home see the failures.
There are households in England--miserable households, to be counted,
Sir Patrick, by more than ones and twos--in which there are young men
who have to thank the strain laid on their constitutions by the popular
physical displays of the present time, for being broken men, and
invalided men, for the rest of their lives."

"Do you hear that?" said Sir Patrick, looking at Geoffrey.

Geoffrey carelessly nodded his head. His irritation had had time to
subside; the stolid indifference had got possession of him again. He had
resumed his chair--he sat, with outstretched legs, staring stupidly
at the pattern on the carpet. "What does it matter to Me?" was the
sentiment expressed all over him, from head to foot.

The surgeon went on.

"I can see no remedy for this sad state of things," he said, "as long
as the public feeling remains what the public feeling is now. A fine
healthy-looking young man, with a superb muscular development,
longs (naturally enough) to distinguish himself like others. The
trai