ensary day; and partly it was
that young coxcomb, Henry Ward, thought it not worth while to trouble
me about a simple epidemic. Simple epidemic indeed!' repeated Dr. May,
changing his tone from ironical mimicry to hot indignation. 'I hope he
will be gratified with its simplicity! I wonder how long he would have
gone on if it had not laid hold on him.'

'You don't mean that he has it?'

'I do. It will give him a practical lesson in simple epidemics.'

'And Henry Ward has it!' repeated Mary, looking so much dismayed that
her father laughed, saying--

'What, Mary thinks when it comes to fevers being so audacious as to lay
hold of the doctors, it is time that they should be put a stop to.'

'He seems to have petted it and made much of it,' said Ethel; 'so no
wonder! What could have possessed him?'

'Just this, Ethel; and it is only human nature after all. This young
lad comes down, as Master Tom will do some day, full of his lectures
and his hospitals, and is nettled and displeased to find his father
content to have Spencer or me called in the instant anything serious is
the matter.'

'But you are a physician, papa,' said Mary.

'No matter for that, to Mr. Henry I'm an old fogie, and depend upon it,
if it were only the giving a dose of salts, he would like to have the
case to himself. These poor creatures were parish patients, and I
don't mean that his treatment was amiss. Spencer is right, it was an
atmosphere where there was no saving anyone, but if he had not been so
delighted with his own way, and I had known what was going on, I'd have
got the Guardians and the Town Council and routed out the place.
Seventeen cases, and most of them the worst form!'

'But what was Mr. Ward about?

'"Says I to myself, here's a lesson for me;
This man's but a picture of what I shall be,"

'when Master Tom gets the upper hand of me,' returned Dr. May. 'Poor
Ward, who has run to me in all his difficulties these thirty years,
didn't like it at all; but Mr. Henry was so confident with his simple
epidemic, and had got him in such order, that he durst not speak.'

'And what brought it to light at last?'

'Everything at once. First the clerics go to see about the family
where the infant died, and report to Spencer; he comes after me, and we
start to reconnoitre. Then I am called in to see Shearman's
daughter--a very ugly case that--and coming out I meet poor Ward
himself, wanting me to see Henry, and