Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope (interesting books to read TXT) 📖

right angles to each other. They both possessed good stables and

ample gardens; and it may be as well to specify, that Mr Umbleby, the

agent and lawyer to the estate, occupied the larger one.

 

Here Dr Thorne lived for eleven or twelve years, all alone; and

then for ten or eleven more with his niece, Mary Thorne. Mary was

thirteen when she came to take up permanent abode as mistress of the

establishment—or, at any rate, to act as the only mistress which the

establishment possessed. This advent greatly changed the tenor of

the doctor’s ways. He had been before pure bachelor; not a room in

his house had been comfortably furnished; he at first commenced in a

makeshift sort of way, because he had not at his command the means of

commencing otherwise; and he had gone on in the same fashion, because

the exact time had never come at which it was imperative in him to

set his house in order. He had had no fixed hour for his meals, no

fixed place for his books, no fixed wardrobe for his clothes. He had

a few bottles of good wine in his cellar, and occasionally asked a

brother bachelor to take a chop with him; but beyond this he had

touched very little on the cares of housekeeping. A slop-bowl full of

strong tea, together with bread, and butter, and eggs, was produced

for him in the morning, and he expected that at whatever hour he

might arrive in the evening, some food should be presented to him

wherewith to satisfy the cravings of nature; if, in addition to this,

he had another slop-bowl of tea in the evening, he got all that he

ever required, or all, at least, that he ever demanded.

 

But when Mary came, or rather, when she was about to come, things

were altogether changed at the doctor’s. People had hitherto

wondered—and especially Mrs Umbleby—how a gentleman like Dr Thorne

could continue to live in so slovenly a manner; and how people again

wondered, and again especially Mrs Umbleby, how the doctor could

possibly think it necessary to put such a lot of furniture into a

house because a little chit of a girl of twelve years of age was

coming to live with him.

 

Mrs Umbleby had great scope for her wonder. The doctor made a

thorough revolution in his household, and furnished his house from

the ground to the roof completely. He painted—for the first time

since the commencement of his tenancy—he papered, he carpeted, and

curtained, and mirrored, and linened, and blanketed, as though a Mrs

Thorne with a good fortune were coming home to-morrow; and all for a

girl of twelve years old. “And how,” said Mrs Umbleby, to her friend

Miss Gushing, “how did he find out what to buy?” as though the doctor

had been brought up like a wild beast, ignorant of the nature of

tables and chairs, and with no more developed ideas of drawing-room

drapery than an hippopotamus.

 

To the utter amazement of Mrs Umbleby and Miss Gushing, the doctor

did it all very well. He said nothing about it to any one—he never

did say much about such things—but he furnished his house well and

discreetly; and when Mary Thorne came home from her school at Bath,

to which she had been taken some six years previously, she found

herself called upon to be the presiding genius of a perfect paradise.

 

It has been said that the doctor had managed to endear himself to the

new squire before the old squire’s death, and that, therefore, the

change at Greshamsbury had had no professional ill effects upon him.

Such was the case at the time; but, nevertheless, all did not go

smoothly in the Greshamsbury medical department. There was six or

seven years’ difference in age between Mr Gresham and the doctor,

and, moreover, Mr Gresham was young for his age, and the doctor old;

but, nevertheless, there was a very close attachment between them

early in life. This was never thoroughly sundered, and, backed by

this, the doctor did maintain himself for some years before the

fire of Lady Arabella’s artillery. But drops falling, if they fall

constantly, will bore through a stone.

 

Dr Thorne’s pretensions, mixed with his subversive professional

democratic tendencies, his seven-and-sixpenny visits, added to his

utter disregard of Lady Arabella’s airs, were too much for her

spirit. He brought Frank through his first troubles, and that at

first ingratiated her; he was equally successful with the early

dietary of Augusta and Beatrice; but, as his success was obtained

in direct opposition to the Courcy Castle nursery principles, this

hardly did much in his favour. When the third daughter was born,

he at once declared that she was a very weakly flower, and sternly

forbade the mother to go to London. The mother, loving her babe,

obeyed; but did not the less hate the doctor for the order, which

she firmly believed was given at the instance and express dictation

of Mr Gresham. Then another little girl came into the world, and the

doctor was more imperative than ever as to the nursery rules and the

excellence of country air. Quarrels were thus engendered, and Lady

Arabella was taught to believe that this doctor of her husband’s

was after all no Solomon. In her husband’s absence she sent for Dr

Fillgrave, giving very express intimation that he would not have to

wound either his eyes or dignity by encountering his enemy; and she

found Dr Fillgrave a great comfort to her.

 

Then Dr Thorne gave Mr Gresham to understand that, under such

circumstances, he could not visit professionally at Greshamsbury

any longer. The poor squire saw there was no help for it, and though

he still maintained his friendly connexion with his neighbour,

the seven-and-sixpenny visits were at an end. Dr Fillgrave from

Barchester, and the gentleman at Silverbridge, divided the

responsibility between them, and the nursery principles of Courcy

Castle were again in vogue at Greshamsbury.

 

So things went on for years, and those years were years of sorrow.

We must not ascribe to our doctor’s enemies the sufferings, and

sickness, and deaths that occurred. The four frail little ones that

died would probably have been taken had Lady Arabella been more

tolerant of Dr Thorne. But the fact was, that they did die; and that

the mother’s heart then got the better of the woman’s pride, and Lady

Arabella humbled herself before Dr Thorne. She humbled herself, or

would have done so, had the doctor permitted her. But he, with his

eyes full of tears, stopped the utterance of her apology, took her

two hands in his, pressed them warmly, and assured her that his joy

in returning would be great, for the love that he bore to all that

belonged to Greshamsbury. And so the seven-and-sixpenny visits were

recommenced; and the great triumph of Dr Fillgrave came to an end.

 

Great was the joy in the Greshamsbury nursery when the second change

took place. Among the doctor’s attributes, not hitherto mentioned,

was an aptitude for the society of children. He delighted to talk to

children, and to play with them. He would carry them on his back,

three or four at a time, roll with them on the ground, race with

them in the garden, invent games for them, contrive amusements in

circumstances which seemed quite adverse to all manner of delight;

and, above all, his physic was not nearly so nasty as that which came

from Silverbridge.

 

He had a great theory as to the happiness of children; and though

he was not disposed altogether to throw over the precepts of

Solomon—always bargaining that he should, under no circumstances,

be himself the executioner—he argued that the principal duty which

a parent owed to a child was to make him happy. Not only was the man

to be made happy—the future man, if that might be possible—but the

existing boy was to be treated with equal favour; and his happiness,

so said the doctor, was of much easier attainment.

 

“Why struggle after future advantage at the expense of present pain,

seeing that the results were so very doubtful?” Many an opponent of

the doctor had thought to catch him on the hip when so singular a

doctrine was broached; but they were not always successful. “What!”

said his sensible enemies, “is Johnny not to be taught to read

because he does not like it?” “Johnny must read by all means,” would

the doctor answer; “but is it necessary that he should not like it?

If the preceptor have it in him, may not Johnny learn, not only to

read, but to like to learn to read?”

 

“But,” would say his enemies, “children must be controlled.” “And so

must men also,” would say the doctor. “I must not steal your peaches,

nor make love to your wife, nor libel your character. Much as I

might wish through my natural depravity to indulge in such vices,

I am debarred from them without pain, and I may almost say without

unhappiness.”

 

And so the argument went on, neither party convincing the other. But,

in the meantime, the children of the neighbourhood became very fond

of Dr Thorne.

 

Dr Thorne and the squire were still fast friends, but circumstances

had occurred, spreading themselves now over a period of many years,

which almost made the poor squire uneasy in the doctor’s company. Mr

Gresham owed a large sum of money, and he had, moreover, already sold

a portion of his property. Unfortunately it had been the pride of the

Greshams that their acres had descended from one to another without

an entail, so that each possessor of Greshamsbury had had the full

power to dispose of the property as he pleased. Any doubt as to

its going to the male heir had never hitherto been felt. It had

occasionally been encumbered by charges for younger children; but

these charges had been liquidated, and the property had come down

without any burden to the present squire. Now a portion of this had

been sold, and it had been sold to a certain degree through the

agency of Dr Thorne.

 

This made the squire an unhappy man. No man loved his family name and

honour, his old family blazon and standing more thoroughly than he

did; he was every whit a Gresham at heart; but his spirit had been

weaker than that of his forefathers; and, in his days, for the first

time, the Greshams were to go to the wall! Ten years before the

beginning of our story it had been necessary to raise a large sum of

money to meet and pay off pressing liabilities, and it was found that

this could be done with more material advantage by selling a portion

of the property than in any other way. A portion of it, about a third

of the whole in value, was accordingly sold.

 

Boxall Hill lay half-way between Greshamsbury and Barchester, and was

known as having the best partridge shooting in the county; as having

on it also a celebrated fox cover, Boxall Gorse, held in very high

repute by Barsetshire sportsmen. There was no residence on the

immediate estate, and it was altogether divided from the remainder of

the Greshamsbury property. This, with many inward and outward groans,

Mr Gresham permitted to be sold.

 

It was sold, and sold well, by private contract to a native of

Barchester, who, having risen from the world’s ranks, had made for

himself great wealth. Somewhat of this man’s character must hereafter

be told; it will suffice to say that he relied for advice in money

matters upon Dr Thorne, and that at Dr Thorne’s suggestion he had

purchased Boxall Hill, partridge-shooting and gorse cover all

included. He had not only bought Boxall Hill, but