THE SINGULAR CASE OF ANNA GRESHAM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2545, 24 December 1902, Page 29 (Supplement)

THE SINGULAR CASE OF ANNA GRESHAM.

By FABIAN BELL.

CHAPTER I.— l AM INTRODUCED TO MY PATIENT. > HE telephone bell rang sharply. "Is Nurse Thurston there? Send her o speak to me. Is that you Nurse Thurs;on?" "Yes." "Are you at liberty? No other immediate engagement?" "No. That's right. Come down to me as quickly as you can. I have a case for pou." I presented myself in the doctor's sanctum. He was writing busily, and merely gave me a side glance. "Ah, is it you," he muttered. "That's right. I wanted you particularly. A queer case, a very queer case, and I must send someone that I can trust — someone who has got her wits about her. Sit down a minute and let me finish this, and then I will tell you." I sat down and looked round me, taking in the familiar details of a scene already well-known. The doctor's comfortably shabby sanctum ; his large writing table, behind which he sat like an amiable spider, his back to the light while all his patients had to face the bright tell-tale illumination of the big east window, so that whether they told the truth or not was of little consequence, since he could read plainly delineated on their •countenances secrets which they did not care, or did not dare, to utter with their lips. Scratch went the pen over the stiff paper, tracing those peculiar and illegible hieroglyphs with which doctors are constrained to hide the simplicity of their prescriptions from the uninitiated. Another sheet of paper, another dip in the ink-pot, another splutter, scratch, scratch, and then he threw down the pen, turned the writing over on the blotting pad, and looked up at me. "I am glad that you are at liberty. This is a peculiar case, and requires intelligent watching." "An operation," I suggested. He shook his head. "No; nothing of that sort. In truth, it is a little out of my line altogether ; but the people are friends, and they have come in from the country on purpose to consult me." "Yes?" I said, interrogatively, for he had paused, and appeared to be lost in thought, drumming lightly with his fingers on the paper that he had just written. 'They are a peculiar family," he said again, after a short pause, during which he frowned, turned over the

paper, and seemed to be consulting it. "A peculiar family ; quite out of the ordinary." " Better or worse? " I queried. "O, that you must find out. I hardly know myself ; but you like experiences. The Greshanis will interest you." "It will be refreshing to meet someone a little out of the common," I said, wondering at the turn the conversation was taking. But Dr Lomax and I had had many talks, and knew each other pretty well by that time. " Yes," he said, reflectively, " they are certainly out of the common run. The father is a materialist of the most pronounced type, the mother is highly neurotic, and the daughter " " Ah ! There is then a daughter." And I knew in a moment that this was to be my patient. " Just so ; she will be your charge. I promised to send you out to-day." " Out? " " Yes. The Greshams have taken a furnished house at St. Glair. They are runholders, and have a large station ; but, as I told you before, they have come here to consult me, and also for a complete change of air and scene." It struck me that the doctor was beating about the bush in a manner altogether foreign to his usual straightr forward, almost blunt, style. Why these details, and not a word about the patient herself? " You have not told me yet what is the matter with my patient." " That's just the difficulty. I scarcely know what to tell you. Her ailment seems entirely mental. I should diagnose it as a form of hysteria. You know how obscure these ailments are. The country practitioner made too much of it, I think ; at any rate they have quarrelled with him, and he no longer attends her. She wants cheerful, human society. As I have told you, the mother is to the last degree nervous, and extremely restless and erratic, and not a fit companion for anyone, especially for her daughter. Miss Gresham has been too much alonei — in short, she wants a cheerful, sensible companion, rather than, a nurse, and that is why lam sending you ; and I have just dotted down a few notes for you here. You can take them ; they may be useful." He folded up the paper on which he had been writing when I entered, put it in an envelope, and gave it to me. " You have fastened it down." "So I have. Never mind ; give it back to me and I will write on the outside." He did so, and when he returned the envelope I read : " To Be Opened When Necessary." " When necessary ! And how shall I know when that is?" He smiled. " There will be no difficulty ; you will know when the time comes. And if it never comes you can throw the envelope into the fire." "And are those all my instructions?" " Yes. Keep the patient amused, and above all things don't let her brood. And there is another thing. You might on this occasion dispense with your uniform. They will want you to go back into the country with them, and it will be better for you to appear as a friend and companion rather than as a professional nurse."