d my neighbor now rolled his large head in
mirth, and said:

"That's so, I guess. But I guess there won't be any trouble about Mrs.
Temple's vote when she sees Denbigh. His specialty is the capture of
sensible women. They all swear by him. You met him, didn't you, at my
office, the other day?"

"Oh yes, and I liked him so much that I wished I was sick on the spot!"

"That's good!" my neighbor said, joyfully.

"Well, you could meet the doctor there almost any afternoon of the week,
toward closing-up hours, and almost any evening at our house here, when
he isn't off on duty. It's a generally understood thing that if he isn't
at home, or making a professional visit, he's at one place or the other.
The farmers round stop for him with their buggies, when they're in a
hurry, and half our calls over the 'phone are for Dr. Denbigh. The fact
is he likes to talk, and if there's any sort of man that _I_ like to
talk with better than another, it's a doctor. I never knew one yet that
didn't say something worth while within five minutes' time. Then, you
know that you can be free with them, be yourself, and that's always
worth while, whether you're worth while yourself or not. You can say
just what you think about anybody or anything, and you know it won't
go farther. You may not be a patient, but they've always got their
Hippocratic oath with them, and they're safe. That so?"

My neighbor wished the pleasure of my explicit assent; my tacit assent
he must have read in my smile. "Yes," I said, "and they're always so
tolerant and compassionate. I don't want to say anything against the
reverend clergy; they're oftener saints upon earth than we allow; but a
doctor is more solid comfort; he seems to understand you exponentially."

"That's it! You've hit it! He's seen lots of other cases like yours, and
next to a man's feeling that he's a peculiar sufferer, he likes to know
that there are other fellows in the same box."

We both laughed at this; it was, in fact, a joke we were the joint
authors of.

"Well, we don't often talk about my ailments; I haven't got a great
many; and generally we get on some abstract topic. Just now we're
running the question of female education, perhaps because it's
impersonal, and we can both treat of it without prejudice."

"The doctor isn't married, I believe?"

"He's a widower of long standing, and that's the best kind of doctor to
have: then he's a kind of a bachelor with practical wisdom added. Yo