A CONSPIRACY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1676, 13 April 1904, Page 19

A CONSPIRACY

* The family physician hears all sorts of secrets, but one of them had an experi- . enco the other day which was unique even for him. One of his masculine patients is about to h-o married. He is a nice young man —a lawyer, who has just commenced tf gain a lucrative practice, and naturally, this being the case, his fau-cy had lightly turned to thoughts of love. The wedding was to be quite a grand, affair. It, was to be celebrated elaborately, with accompaniments of bridesmaids and palms and singling choristers, and later the happy couple were to have a. trip abroad. The girl in the case was an extravagant: little creature, and she it was who had insisted on the long journey. The very day before the ceremony was to be performed the physician had a call from the prospective bridegroom. The latter seemed nervous, and insisted that the dc-ors leading to the consulting room be closed, as h-ei had something of grave importance to communicate. When this had been done he leaded towards the doctor confidingly. “See here, o'l'd man,” he said, “I am in a deuce of a hole, and you’ve got to help me out of it.” “I’ll do anything I can,” replied th« professional man, wondering if he wv going to be required to swear that the% was insanity in the groom’s family in order to rescue him from an alliance l the thought of which had grown hateful to him. . “I might as well make a> clean breast of it,” said liis visitor, gloomily. “It’s a question of money. You see. Rose has insisted on this visit to Egypt. She sai4 from the first that she wouldn’t marry •a,n\y man who wouldn’t take her so-met-where out of the ordinary honeymoonersi’ track, and I had to promise. Well (he long and short of it is I haven’t tho funds to take such an expensive . voyage, even' if I could afford to lose the time from my practice, which is growing. Now, I must be taken ill after the ceremony to-morrow. You will be at hand, and will, of course, be called to see me. Then you must say there- is something wrong with my heart, and that you won’t answer for the consequences if I persist in taking a long journey. Say any tiling that, sounds plausible, and that Rose’s uncle will believe, but for heaven’s sake don’t let anyone get the impression that my*attack is an epileptic one, or anything horrid of that sort. “Now, old man, don’t fail: me, for I tell you this is a very serious occasion; but come to the front as soon as you hear that I have fainted, and make your part as real as you can. won’t you?” “I will,” replied the physician, solemnity, and exactly as- if he were being- mar« ried himself. “It’s a very delicate situa* lion for you. I see that, and you can depend on me. I’m used to telling fibs.” The next day it was remarked, as flue bridegroom walked up t-he aisle, that he looked terribly white and nervous, and so it ‘was really no surprise to the guests who were at the reception to see him suddenly sink to a chair, murmuring inarticulately, and with one hand over liis heart. Someone brought water, the brid« tremblingly proffered, her vinaigrette, half-a-dozen amiable ladies- fanned tha unfortunate gentleman, and finally tlik> physician cann© hurriedly to the! spot. lie supported liis friend to- a bedroom made a hasty examination of the state of his heart, and directly announced to .his weeping wife that her husband would, have to remain in liis room for at legist two -days, and that a sea voyage would instantly prove fatal. . U The doctor’s own heart failed him when the bride demanded ai consultation o>f plivsieians, naming a celebrated heart specialist as the one she would like called in; but be stood firm that, there was no occasion for such a step, and that, the patient would be able to sit up in a clay or two. Then lie murmured something vague about “cardiac symptoms,” and went home- to meditate on the. blow his reputation would receive if another medical man was called in. But this next clay, in spite of many dire prophecies to the contrary, the bridegroom had recovered sufficiently to sit up, and the next, lie was able to walk ■ out. After a week he was fully restored to health, but it was too late, to take’a wedding trip then. on; When he met the physician in the street one day thereafter he saicl: . "U-. “You saved me U 200.” “And all that I*got out of if,” rettifned the medical mam “was a blow to my battered old conscience.”