on the dispute in hand.

"You are entirely wrong," I began, turning upon my opponents. "This
institution had seven hundred more applicants than it could accommodate
last year. We are not chartered to turn away suffering. We exist to
relieve it. It is our business to find the means to do so, as much as
it is to find the true remedy for the individual case. It is"--

"It is an act of financial folly," interrupted my most systematic
professional enemy, a certain Dr. Gazell. He had a bland voice which
irritated me like sugar sauce put upon horse-radish. "It cannot be
done without mortgaging ourselves up to our ears--or our eaves. I
maintain that the hospital can better bear to turn off patients than to
turn on debt."

"And I maintain," I cried, tempestuously, "that this hospital cannot
bear to do either! If the gentlemen gathered here to-night--the
members of this staff, representing, as they do, the wealthiest and
most influential _clienteles_ in the city--if we cannot among us pledge
from our patients the sum needed to put this thing through, I say it is
a poor show for ourselves. I, for one, am ready to raise fifteen
thousand dollars within three months. If the rest of you will do your
share in proportion"--

"Dr. Thorne has always been a little too personal, in this matter,"
said Gazell, reddening; he did not look at me, for embarrassment, but
addressed the chairman of the meeting with a vague air of being in
earnest, if any one could be got to believe it.

"No doubt about that," said one of the staff in an undertone. "Thorne
is"--I thought I caught the added words, "unreasonable fellow," but I
would not give myself the appearance of having done so.

"But we can't afford to quarrel with him altogether," suggested
Chirugeon, still in a tone not meant for me to overhear. And with this
they went at it again, till the discussion reached such warmth, and the
motion to leave the subject with the trustees, such favour, that, in
disgust, I seized my hat and strode out of the room.

Smarting, I rushed away from them, and angrily out-of-doors again. I
was exceedingly angry; but this gave me no more, perhaps (though I
thought, a little), than the usual discomfort.

From the hospital I hurried to the consultation; where I was now well
over-due. I found the attendant physician about to leave; in fact, I
met him on the stairs, up which I had run rapidly, as soon as my ring
was answered in the familiar house.