The Doctor's Deception

The doctor and his pretty young patient were talking by the side of the fire. There was nothing really the matter with her, except that she had one of those little feminine ailments from which pretty women frequently suffer -- slight anemia, nervous attack and a suspicion of fatigue, probably of that fatigue from which newly married people often suffer at the end of the first month of their married life.

She was lying on the couch and talking. "No, Doctor," she said, "I shall never be able to understand a woman deceiving her husband. Even allowing that she does not love him, that she pays no heed to her vows and promises, how can she give herself to another man? How can she conceal the intrigue from other people's eyes? How can it be possible to love amid guilt and deception?"

The doctor smiled and replied: "It is perfectly easy, and I can assure you that a woman does not think of all those little subtle details when she has made up her mind to go astray. I even feel certain that no woman is ripe for true love until she has passed through all the promis-cuousness and all the irksomeness of married life. After all, what is marriage? Nothing but an exchange of ill-tempered words by day and perfunctory caresses at night.

"As for deception, all women have plenty of it on hand on such occasions. The simplest of them are wonderful tacticians and extricate themselves from the greatest dilemmas in an extraordinary way."

The young woman, however, seemed incredulous. "No, Doctor," she said, "one never thinks until after it has happened of what one ought to have done in a dangerous affair, and women are certainly more liable than men to lose their heads on such occasions."

The doctor raised his hands. "After it has happened, you say! Now I will tell you something that happened to one of my female patients whom I always considered above reproach ...

"It happened in a provincial town. One night when I was sleeping profoundly, in that deep, first sleep from which it is so difficult to rouse one's self, it seemed to me in my dreams as if the bells in the town were sounding a fire alarm, and I woke up with a start. It was my own bell which was ringing wildly, and as Jean, my footman, did not seem to be answering the door, I in turn pulled the bell at the head of my bed. Soon I heard banging and steps in the silent house, and then my footman came into my room and handed me a letter which said: 'Madame Leliévre begs Doctor Siméon to come to her immediately.'

"I thought for a few moments, and then I said to myself: 'A nervous attack, vapors, nonsense; I am too tired.' And so I replied: 'As Doctor Siméon is not at all well, he must beg Madame Lelièvre to be kind enough to call in his colleague, Monsieur Bonnet.'

"I put the note into an envelope and went to sleep again, but about half an hour later the street bell rang again, and Jean came to me and said: 'There is somebody downstairs who wishes to speak to you immediately. She says it is a matter of life and death for two people.' Whereupon I sat up in bed and told him to show the person in.

"A kind of black phantom appeared who raised her veil as soon as Jean had left the room. It was Madame Bertha (continued on page 71) Doctor's Deception (continued from page 65) Lelièvre, quite a young woman, who had been married for three years to a wealthy shopkeeper in the town and was said to have been the prettiest girl in the neighborhood.

"She was terribly pale; her face was contracted like the faces of mad people are occasionally, and her hands trembled violently. Twice she tried to speak without being able to utter a sound, but at last she stammered out:

" 'Come--quick--quick, Doctor. Come--my--my--lover has just died in my bedroom.' She stopped, half suffocated with emotion, and then went on: 'My husband will -- be coming home from his club very soon.'

"I jumped out of bed without even considering that I was only in my night-shirt, and dressed myself in a few moments. Then I said: 'Did you come a short time ago?'

" 'No,' she said, standing like a statue petrified with horror. 'It was my maid--she knows.' And then after a short silence she went on: 'I was there--by his side.' And she uttered a sort of cry of horror, and after a fit of choking, which made her gasp, she wept violently, shaking with spasmodic sobs for a minute or two. Then her tears suddenly ceased, as if dried by an internal fire, and with an air of tragic calmness she said: 'Let us make haste.'

"I was ready, but I exclaimed: 'I quite forgot to order my carriage.'

" 'I have one,' she said; 'it is his, which was waiting for him!' She wrapped herself up so as to completely conceal her face, and we started.

"When she was by my side in the darkness of the carriage she suddenly seized my hand and, crushing it in her delicate fingers, she said with a shaking voice that proceeded from a distracted heart: 'Oh! If you only knew, if you only knew what I am suffering! I loved him; I have loved him distractedly, like a madwoman, for the last six months.'

"'Is anyone up in your house?' I asked.

" 'No, nobody except my maid, who knows everything.'

"We stopped at the door. Evidently everybody was asleep. She let us in with her key and we walked upstairs on tip-toe. The frightened maid was sitting on the top of the stairs with a lighted candle by her side, as she was afraid to stop by the dead man. I went into the room, which was turned upside down, as if there had been a struggle in it. The bed, which was tumbled and open, seemed to be waiting for somebody; one of the sheets was thrown onto the floor, and wet napkins with which they had bathed the young man's temples were lying by the side of a basin.

"The dead man's body was lying at full length in the middle of the room, and I went up to it, looked at it and touched it. I opened the eyes and felt the hands, and then, turning to the two women who were shaking as if they were frozen, I said to them: 'Help me to lift him onto the bed.' When we had laid him gently onto it I listened to his heart, put a looking glass to his lips and then said: 'It is all over; let us make haste and dress him.' It was a horrible sight!

"I took his limbs one by one, as if they had belonged to some enormous doll, and held them out to the clothes which the women brought, and they put on his socks, drawers, trousers, waistcoat and lastly the coat, but it was a difficult matter to get the arms into the sleeves.

"When it came to buttoning his boots the two women kneeled down, while I held the light. As his feet were rather swollen it was very difficult, and as they could not find a buttonhook they had to use their hairpins. When the terrible business was over I looked at our work and said: 'You ought to arrange his hair a little.' The maid went and brought her mistress's large-toothed comb and brush, but as she was trembling and pulling out his long, tangled hair in doing it, Mme. Lelièvre took the comb out of her hand and arranged his hair as if she were caressing him. She parted it, brushed his beard, rolled his mustaches gently round her fingers, as she had no doubt been in the habit of doing in the familiarities of their intrigue.

"Suddenly, however, letting go of his hair, she took her dead lover's insert head in her hands and looked for a long time in despair at the dead face, which no longer could smile at her. Then, throwing herself onto him, she took him into her arms and kissed him ardently. Her kisses fell like blows onto his closed mouth and eyes, onto his forehead and temples, and then, putting her lips to his ear, as if he could still hear her and as if she were about to whisper something to him to make their embraces still more ardent, she said several times in a heart-rending voice: 'Adieu, my darling!'

"Just then the clock struck twelve, and I started up. 'Twelve o'clock!' I exclaimed. 'That is the time when the club closes. Come, madame, we have not a moment to lose!'

"She started up, and I said: 'We must carry him into the drawing room.' When we had done this I placed him on a sofa and lit the chandeliers, and just then the front door was opened and shut noisily. The husband had come back, and I said (concluded on page 74)Doctor's Deception(continued from page 71) to the maid: 'Bring me the basin and the towels and make the room look tidy. Make haste, for heaven's sake! Monsieur Lelièvre is coming in.'

"I heard his steps on the stairs and then his hands feeling along the walls. 'Come here, my dear fellow,' I said. 'We have had an accident.'

"And the astonished husband appeared in the door with a cigar in his mouth and said: 'What is the matter? What is the meaning of this?'

"'My dear friend,' I said, going up to him, 'you find us in great embarrassment. I had remained late, chatting with your wife and our friend, who had brought me in his carriage, when he suddenly fainted, and in spite of all we have done he has remained unconscious for two hours. I did not like to call in strangers, and if you will now help me downstairs with him I shall be able to attend to him better at his own house.'

"The husband, who was surprised but quite unsuspicious, took off his hat. Then he took his rival, who would be quite inoffensive for the future, under the arms. I got between his two legs as if I had been a horse between the shafts, and we went downstairs while his wife lighted us. When we got outside I held the body up so as to deceive the coachman and said: 'Come my friend; it is nothing; you feel better already, I expect. Pluck up your courage and make an attempt. It will soon be over.' But as I felt that he was slipping out of my hands I gave him a slap on the shoulder which sent him forward and made him fall into the carriage; then I got in after him.

"Monsieur Lelièvre, who was rather alarmed, said to me: 'Do you think it is anything serious?' To which I replied, 'No,' with a smile, as I looked at his wife, who had put her arm into that of her legitimate husband and was trying to see into the carriage.

"I shook hands with them and told my coachman to start, and during the whole driver the dead man kept falling against me. When we got to his house I said that he had become unconscious on the way home and helped to carry him upstairs, where I certified that he was dead and did some more play-acting for his distracted family. At last I got home and back to bed, not without swearing at lovers."

The doctor ceased, though he was still smiling, and the young woman, who was in a very nervous state, said: "Why have you told me this terrible story?"

He gave her a gallant bow and replied:

"So that I may offer you my services if necessary."

"Come, my friend," I said, "it will soon be over."