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Updated: May 24, 2025
"You know what I mean. He's just as grumpy as Dr Gruffen, and thinks everybody is to do what he tells them. Of course, you take his part." "And of course you ought, seeing how good he has been." "And of course I should, to anybody but you. I do like to abuse him to you." "Lily, Lily!" "So I do.
At that time his total income amounted to little more than two hundred a year, and he had resolved within his own mind that Dr Gruffen was esteemed as much the better doctor by the general public opinion of Guestwick, and that Dr Gruffen's sandy-haired assistant would even have a better chance of success in the town than himself, should it ever come to pass that the doctor was esteemed too old for personal practice.
The family at the Manor had employed Dr Gruffen for the last thirty years, and Crofts, when he received the earl's message, could hardly believe the words. "The earl ain't very bad," said the servant, "but he would be glad to see you if possible a little before dinner." "You're sure he wants to see me?" said Crofts. "Oh, yes; I'm sure enough of that, sir." "It wasn't Dr Gruffen?"
"No, sir; it wasn't Dr Gruffen. I believe his lordship's had about enough of Dr Gruffen. The doctor took to chaffing his lordship one day." "Chaffed his lordship; his hands and feet, and that sort of thing?" suggested the doctor. "Hands and feet!" said the man. "Lord bless you, sir, he poked his fun at him, just as though he was nobody.
"But at any rate you must forgive me before I go." "I won't forgive you at all, unless you repent of your sins, and alter altogether the wickedness of your mind. You will become very soon as bad as Dr Gruffen." "Shall I?" "Oh, but I will forgive you; for after all, you are the most generous man in the world." "Oh, yes; of course I am. Well, good-bye."
Whereas old Dr Gruffen, of whom but few people spoke well, had made a fortune in Guestwick, and even still drew from the ailments of the town a considerable and hardly yet decreasing income. Now this was hard upon Dr Crofts unless there was existing some such well-understood arrangement as that above named.
Mrs Dale, perhaps, regarded her own girls as still merely children, for Bell, the elder, was then hardly eighteen; or perhaps she held imprudent and heterodox opinions on this subject; or it may be that she selfishly preferred Dr Crofts, with all the danger to her children, to Dr Gruffen, with all the danger to herself.
Had any of the family in the Small House been ill, he would have been there of course. The squire himself employed the apothecary in the village, or if higher aid was needed, would send for Dr Gruffen.
You see, Gruffen has been attending us for I don't know how many years; but upon my word " and then the earl stopped himself. "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good," said Crofts, with a slight laugh. "Perhaps it'll blow me some good, for Gruffen never did me any. The fact is this; I'm very well, you know, as strong as a horse." "You look pretty well."
Dr Gruffen had once been asked to dinner at Guestwick Manor. "Just a bachelor's chop," said the earl; "for there's nobody at home but myself." Whereupon Dr Gruffen had come in coloured trousers, and had never again been asked to dine at Guestwick Manor.
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