tly
about it."

"What do you put it down to, then?"

"To you."

"How's that?" I asked.

"Well," said he, "you must allow that it is a very queer coincidence--if
it is a coincidence--that from the day when your plate was put up my
practice has taken a turn for the worse."

"I should be very sorry to think it was cause and effect," I answered.
"How do you think that my presence could have hurt you?"

"I'll tell you frankly, old chap," said he, putting on suddenly that
sort of forced smile which always seems to me to have a touch of a
sneer in it. "You see, many of my patients are simple country folk, half
imbecile for the most part, but then the half-crown of an imbecile is
as good as any other half-crown. They come to my door, and they see two
names, and their silly jaws begin to drop, and they say to each other,
'There's two of 'em here. It's Dr. Cullingworth we want to see, but if
we go in we'll be shown as likely as not to Dr. Munro.' So it ends in
some cases in their not coming at all. Then there are the women. Women
don't care a toss whether you are a Solomon, or whether you are hot from
an asylum. It's all personal with them. You fetch them, or you don't
fetch them. I know how to work them, but they won't come if they think
they are going to be turned over to anybody else. That's what I put the
falling away down to."

"Well," said I, "that's easily set right." I marched out of the room and
downstairs, with both Cullingworth and his wife behind me. Into the yard
I went, and, picking up a big hammer, I started for the front door, with
the pair still at my heels. I got the forked end of the hammer under my
plate, and with a good wrench I brought the whole thing clattering on to
the pavement.

"That won't interfere with you any more," said I.

"What do you intend to do now?" he asked.

"Oh, I shall find plenty to do. Don't you worry about that," I answered.

"Oh, but this is all rot," said he, picking up the plate. "Come along
upstairs and let us see where we stand."

We filed off once more, he leading with the huge brass "Dr. Munro"
under his arm; then the little woman, and then this rather perturbed
and bemuddled young man. He and his wife sat on the deal table in the
consulting room, like a hawk and a turtle-dove on the same perch, while
I leaned against the mantelpiece with my hands in my pockets. Nothing
could be more prosaic and informal; but I knew very well that I was at a
crisis of my life. Bef