Project Gutenberg's Doctor Claudius, A True Story, by F. Marion Crawford

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Title: Doctor Claudius, A True Story

Author: F. Marion Crawford

Release Date: March 1, 2005 [EBook #15223]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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DOCTOR CLAUDIUS

A True Story

BY F. MARION CRAWFORD

Author OF "MR. ISAACS"

London

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1883

Dedicated

TO

MY DEAR FRIENDS

THE COUNTESS MARGARET AND

CLAUDIUS, PH.D.

DOCTOR CLAUDIUS.

CHAPTER I.

"I believe I am old," said the Doctor, pushing his straight-backed
wooden chair from the table, and turning from his books to look out of
his small window. "Yes, I am certainly very old," he said again, rapping
absently on the arm of the chair with the pen he held. But the fingers
that held the instrument were neither thin nor withered, and there was
no trembling in the careless motion of the hand. The flaxen hair, long
and tangled, was thick on the massive head, and the broad shoulders were
flat and square across. Whatever Dr. Claudius might say of himself, he
certainly did not look old.

And yet he said to himself that he was, and he probably knew. He said to
himself, as he had said every day for many long months, that this was
the secret of the difference he felt between his life and the life of
his companions--such companions as he had, between his thoughts and
their thoughts, between his ways and their ways. Of late the fancy had
gained a stronger hold on his imagination, excited by solitude and an
undue consumption of the midnight oil, and as he turned his face to the
evening light, an observer, had there been one, might have felt half
inclined to agree with him. His face was pale, and the high aquiline
nose looked drawn. Moreover, the tangled hair and beard contrasted
strangely with his broad, spotless collar, and his dressing-gown of
sober black. The long habit of neatness in dress survived any small
vanity of personal looks.

He rose, and throwing the pen impatiently on the