Brown came in, looking very grave
too, and took off one of his black gloves and shook hands. Then he
took off the other, and put them both into his hat, and had a glass of
sherry and a sponge biscuit, so Margery knew that he was a visitor of
condolence.
Then he and Grandmamma talked a long time. Margery does not know what
about, for she was reading Mrs. Trimmer; but she thinks they were
getting rather cross with each other. Then they got up, and Dr. Brown
looked into his hat, and took out his gloves, and Grandmamma wiped her
eyes with her pocket-handkerchief, and said, "I hope I know how to
submit, but it has been a heavy judgment, Dr. Brown."
And Margery was just beginning to cry too, when Dr. Brown said, "A
very heavy judgment indeed, Madam, for letting the cesspool leak into
the well;" and it puzzled her so much that she stopped.
Then Grandmamma was very angry, and Dr. Brown was angry too, and then
Grandmamma said, "I don't know another respectable practitioner, Dr.
Brown, who would have said what you have said this morning."
And Dr. Brown brushed his hat the wrong way with his coat-sleeve, and
said, "Too true, madam! We are not a body of reformers, with all our
opportunities we're as bigoted as most priesthoods, but we count fewer
missionary martyrs. The sins, the negligences, and the ignorances of
every age have gone on much the same as far as we have been concerned,
though very few people keep family chaplains, and most folk have a
family doctor.
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