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Show STORY OF A PHYSICIAN'S WIFE. "I have heard of persons whose hair was whitened through excessive fear; but as I never saw anyone so afflicted I am disposed to be incredulous on the subject." The above remark was made to Dr. Maynard, as we sat on the piazza of his pretty villa, discussing the different effects of terror on dissimilar temperaments. Without replying to me the doctor turned to his wife and said "Helen, will you please relate to my friend the incident within your own experience? It is the most convincing argument I can advance." I looked at Mrs. Maynard in surprise. I had observed that her hair, which was luxuriant and dressed very becomingly was purely colorless; but as she was a young woman, and also a very pretty one, I surmised it was powdered to heighten the brilliancy of her fine dark eyes. The doctor and I had been fellow students, but, after leaving college we had drifted apart-I to commence practice in an Eastern city, he to pursue his profession in a growing town in the West. I was on a visit to him for the first time since his marriage. Mrs. Maynard, no doubt reading my supposition, by my look of incredulity, smiled as she shook her snowy tresses over her shoulders, and seating herself by her husband's side, related the following episode: "It is nearly two years since my husband was called upon one evening to visit a patient several miles away. Our domestics had all gone to a ‘wake' in the vicinity, the dead man being a relative of one of our serving women. Thus I was left alone, but I felt no fear, for we never had heard of burglars or any sort of desperadoes in our quiet village, then consisting of a few scattered houses. The windows leading out on the piazza were open as now, but I secured the blinds before my husband's departure, and I locked the outside doors, all except the front one, which I left for the doctor to lock after going out, so that, if I should fall asleep before his return, he could enter without arousing me. I heard the doctor's rapid footsteps on the gravel, quickened by the urgent tones of the messenger who awaited him, and after the sharp rattle of the carriage wheels had become but an echo I seated myself at the parlor astral, and soon became absorbed in the book I had been reading before being disturbed by the summons. But after a time my interest succumbed to drowsiness, and I thought of retiring, when the clock in the doctor's study adjoining the parlor struck twelve, so I determined to wait a few moments more, feeling that he would be home now very soon. I closed my book, donned a robe de chambre, let down my hair, and then returned to my seat to patiently wait and listen. Not the faintest sound disturbed the stillness of the night. Not a breath of air stirred the leaf. The silence was so profound that it became oppressive. I longed for the sharp click of the gate latch and the well known step on the gravel walk. I did not dare to break the hush by moving or singing, I was so oppressed with the deep stillness. The human mind is a strange torture of itself. I began to conjure up vivid fancies about ghostly visitants, in the midst of which occurred to me the stories I had heard from superstitious people about the troubled spirits of those who had died suddenly, like the man whom my servants had gone to ‘wake' who had been killed by an accident in a saw-mill. In the midst of these terrifying reflections I was started by a stealthy footfall on the piazza. I listened between fear and hope. It might be the doctor. But no he would not tread like that, the step was too cautious for anything less wily than a cat. As I listened again, my eyes were fixed on the window blind. I saw the slats move slowly, and then the rays of the moon disclosed a thin cadaverous face, and bright, glittering eyes peering at me. O horror! who was it? I felt the cold perspiration start from every pore. I could not cry out, my tongue seemed glued to the roof of my mouth, while the deathly white face pressed close and the great, sunken eyes wandered in their gaze about the room. In a few moments the blind closed as noiselessly as it had been opened, and the cautious footsteps came toward the door. ‘Merciful Heavens!' I cried, in a horror stricken whisper, as I heard the key turn in the lock, ‘the doctor in his haste must have forgotten to remove the key!'" "God forgive me!" ejaculated Dr. Maynard, interrupting his wife, and looking far more excited than she. "I can never forgive myself for such a thoughtless act. Please proceed, my dear." "I heard the front door open, the step in the hall, and helpless as a statue I sat riveted to my chair. The parlor door was open and in it stood a tall thin man whom I never beheld before. He was dressed in ?? ??-a sort of gaberdine, and a black velvet skull cap partially concealing a broad forehead, under which gleamed black eyes, bright as living coals, and placed so near together that their gaze was almost preternatural in its directness; heavy grizzled eye brows hung over them like the tangled mane of a lion; the nose was sharp and prominent, and the chin was over grown with white hair, which hung down in locks as wierd as the ancient Mariner's. He politely doffed his cap bowed, replaced it, and then said, in a slightly foreign accent ‘Madame, it is not necessary for me to stand on further ceremony, as your husband, Dr. Maynard (hereupon he again bowed profoundly), has already acquainted you with the nature of my business here to-night I perceive,' he added, glancing at my neglige robe, ‘that you were expecting me.'" "‘No,' I found voice to stammer. ‘The doctor has said nothing to me about a visitor at this hour of the night.'" "‘Ah! he wished to spare you, no doubt, a disagreeable apprehension,' he returned, advancing, and taking a seat on the sofa opposite me, where for a few moments he eyed me from head to foot with a strange glittering light in his eyes that mysteriously impressed me. ‘You have a remarkably fine physique, Madame,' he observed, quietly, ‘one that might deceive the most skilled and practiced physician. Do you suffer much pain?'" "Unable to speak I shook my head. A terrible suspicion was creeping over me. I was alone miles, from any aid or rescue, with a madman." "‘Ah?' he continued, reflectively, ‘your husband may have mistaken a tumor for a cancer. Allow me to feel your pulse,' he said, rising and bending over me. "I thought it best to humor him, remembering it was unwise for a helpless woman to oppose the as yet harmless freak of a lunatic. He took out his watch, shook his head gravely, laid my hand down gently, then went toward the study, where on the table was an open case of surgical instruments. "Do not be alarmed, Madame,' he said to me as I was about to rise and flee, and in another instant he was by my side, with the case in his possession. "Involuntarily I raised my hand and cried "‘Spare me! Oh, spare me, I beseech you!'" "‘Madame,' he said sternly, clasping my wrist with his long sinewy fingers, with a grip of steel, ‘you behave like a child. I have no time to parley, for I have received a letter from the Emperor of the French stating that he is suffering with an ?? abscess, and is very desirous of my attendance. I must start for Europe immediately after operating on your breast,' and before I could make the slightest resistance, he had me in his arms and was carrying me, into the study, where there was a long table covered with green baize. On this he laid me and holding me down with one hand with the strength of a ??, he brought forth from some hidden recess in his gown several leather straps, with which he secured me to the table with the skill of an expert. It was but the work of a moment to unloose my robe and bare my bosom. Then, after carefully examining my left breast, he said: "‘Madame, your husband has made a mistake; I find no necessity for my intended operation.' "At this I gave a long drawn sigh of relief, and prepared to rise. "‘But,' he continued, ‘I have discovered that your heart is as large as that of an ox! I will remove it so that you may see for yourself, reduce to its natural size by a curious process of my own, unknown to the medical sciences, and of which I am the discoverer, and then replace it.' "He then began to examine the cruel knife, on which I closed my eyes, while every nerve was in perceptible tremor. "‘The mechanism of the heart is like a watch,' he resumed; ‘if it goes too fast, the great blood vessel that supplies the force must be stopped like the lever of a watch, and the works must be cleansed, repaired, and regulated.' "‘It may interest you to know that I was present at the post-mortem examination held over the remains of the beautiful Louise of Prussia. Had I been consulted before her death I would have saved her life by taking out her heart, and removing the polyps, between which it was firmly wedged, like as if in a vice, but I was called too late. The King and myself had a little difference, he was a German, I am French. I trust that is a sufficient explanation.' "He now bent over me, his long, white beard brushed my face. I raised my eyes beseechingly, trying to think of some way to save myself. ‘Oh, sir give me anesthetic, that I may not feel the pain,' I pleaded. "‘Indeed, indeed, Madame, I would comply with your wish were you not the wife of a physician-of a skillful surgeon, I wish you to note with what ease I perform this difficult operation, so that you may tell your husband of the great savant whose services he secured fortunately in season.' "As he said this he made the final test of the knife on his thumb. How precious were the moments now! They were fleeing all too fast, and yet an eternity seemed comprehended in every one. I never fainted in my life, and I never felt less like swooning than now, as I summoned all my presence of mind to delay the fearful moment fervently praying in the meantime for my husband's return. "‘Doctor,' said I, with assumed composure, I have the utmost confidence in your skill-I would not trust my life to another, but, doctor, you have forgotten to bring a napkin to staunch the blood. If you will have the goodness to ascend to my sleeping chamber, at the right of the hall, you will find everything you need for that purpose in the bureau.' "‘Ah, Madame,' he said, shaking his head sagaciously, ‘I never draw blood during a surgical operation, that is another one of my secrets unknown to the faculty.' "Then placing his hand upon my bosom, he added with horrible espieglerie "‘I'll scarcely mar that whiter skin than snow, and smooth as monumental alabaster.' "‘O, God!' I cried, as I felt the cold steel touch my breast! but with the same breath came deliverance. "Quick as thought a heavy woollen piano cover was thrown over the head and person of the madman, and bound tightly around him. As quickly was I released, and the thongs that bound me soon held the maniac. "My husband held me in his arms. He had noiselessly approached, and taking the horror of my situation at a glance, had by the only means at hand secured the madman, who was the very patient he had been summoned to attend, but who had escaped the vigilance of the keeper soon after the departure of the messenger, who had now returned with the doctor in pursuit of him. As the poor wretch was being hurried away, he turned to me and said, ‘Madame, this is a plot to rob me of my reputation. Your husband is envious of my great skill as a surgeon. Adieu!' I afterwards learned that the man was once an eminent surgeon in Europe but much learning had made him mad. When he bound me to that table my hair was black as a raven; when I left it was as you see it now-white as snow." |