Latest / O. Henryana / 005 - A Professional Secret
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Section five of O. Henryanna by O. Henry. This LibriVox
- 0:05Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Recording by Phil Schamff
- 0:10Speaker 1: A Professional Secret, the Story of a Maid made over.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Doctor Satterfield Prince, physician to the leisure class, looked at
- 0:19Speaker 1: his watch. It indicated five minutes to twelve. At the
- 0:24Speaker 1: stroke of the hour would expire the morning term set
- 0:27Speaker 1: apart for the reception of his patients in his handsome
- 0:30Speaker 1: office apartments. And then the young woman attendant ushered in
- 0:35Speaker 1: from the waiting room, the last unit of the wealthy
- 0:37Speaker 1: and fashionable gathering that had come to patronize his skill.
- 0:42Speaker 1: Doctor Prince turned his watch still in hand, his manner
- 0:46Speaker 1: courteous but seeming to invite promptness and brevity in the
- 0:50Speaker 1: interview the last patient, who was a middle aged lady,
- 0:54Speaker 1: richly dressed with an amiable and placid face. When she spoke,
- 1:00Speaker 1: her voice revealed the drawling of musical slur and intonation
- 1:04Speaker 1: of the South. She had come. She leisurely explained to
- 1:09Speaker 1: bespeak the services of doctor Prince in the case of
- 1:12Speaker 1: her daughter, who was possessed of a most mysterious affliction,
- 1:17Speaker 1: And then femininely she proceeded to exhaustively diagnose the affliction,
- 1:23Speaker 1: in forming the physician with a calm certitude of its
- 1:26Speaker 1: origin and nature. The diagnosis advanced by the lady Missus
- 1:31Speaker 1: Galloway Rankin, was one so marvelously strange and singular in
- 1:36Speaker 1: its conception that Doctor Prince, accustomed as he was to
- 1:41Speaker 1: the conceits and vagarities of wealthy malingerers, was actually dumbfounded.
- 1:47Speaker 1: The following is the matter of Missus Rankin's statement. Briefly reported, she,
- 1:53Speaker 1: Missus Rankin, was of an old Kentucky family, the Beals.
- 1:58Speaker 1: Between the Beals and another history Yorick house, the Rankins
- 2:02Speaker 1: had been waged for nearly a century, one of the
- 2:05Speaker 1: fiercest and most sanguinary feuds within the history of the state.
- 2:10Speaker 1: Each generation had kept alive both the hate and the warfare,
- 2:14Speaker 1: until at length it was said that nature began to
- 2:17Speaker 1: take cognizance of the sentiment, and Beals and Rancons were
- 2:21Speaker 1: born upon the earth as antagonistic toward each other, as
- 2:25Speaker 1: cats and dogs. So for four generations the war had waged,
- 2:30Speaker 1: and the mountains were dotted with tombstones of both families.
- 2:35Speaker 1: At last, for lack of fuel to feed upon, the feud, expired,
- 2:39Speaker 1: with only one direct descendant of the Beals and one
- 2:43Speaker 1: of the Rankins remaining, Evelina Beale, aged nineteen and Galloway Rancan,
- 2:49Speaker 1: aged twenty five. The last mortal shot in the feud
- 2:54Speaker 1: was fired by Cupid. The two survivors met, became immediately
- 2:59Speaker 1: and mutually enamored, and a miracle transpired on Kentucky soil.
- 3:04Speaker 1: A Rankin wedded Abelle. Interposed and irrelevant to the story
- 3:09Speaker 1: was the information that coal mines had been discovered later
- 3:12Speaker 1: on the Rankin lands, and now the Galloway Rankins were
- 3:16Speaker 1: to be computed among the millionaires. All that was long
- 3:20Speaker 1: enough ago for there to now be a daughter, twenty
- 3:24Speaker 1: years of age, miss annabel Rankin, for whose relief the
- 3:28Speaker 1: services of doctor Prince was petitioned. Then followed in Missus
- 3:33Speaker 1: Rankin's statement a description of the mysterious, though by her
- 3:37Speaker 1: readily accounted for affliction. It seemed that there was a
- 3:41Speaker 1: peculiar difficulty in the young lady's powers of locomotion in walking,
- 3:47Speaker 1: a process requiring the coordination and unanimity of the functions.
- 3:52Speaker 1: Doctor Prince said Missus Rankin would understand and admit the
- 3:56Speaker 1: non existence of a necessity for anatomical speci vacation. There
- 4:01Speaker 1: persisted a stubborn opposition, a most contrary and counteracting antagonism
- 4:07Speaker 1: in those successively progressive and generally unconsciously automatic movements necessary
- 4:13Speaker 1: to proper locomotion. There was a violent lack of harmony
- 4:17Speaker 1: and mutuality. To give an instance cited by missus Rankin,
- 4:22Speaker 1: if miss Annabel desired to ascend a stairway, one foot
- 4:26Speaker 1: would be easily advanced to the step above, but instead
- 4:30Speaker 1: of aiding and abetting its fellow, the other would at
- 4:33Speaker 1: once proceed to start downstairs. By a strong physical and
- 4:37Speaker 1: mental effort, the young lady could walk fairly well for
- 4:41Speaker 1: a short distance, but suddenly the rebellious entities would become uncontrollable,
- 4:47Speaker 1: and she would be compelled to turn undesirable corners, to
- 4:51Speaker 1: enter impossible doorways, to dance, shuffle, side step, and perform
- 4:56Speaker 1: other undignified and distressing evolutions. After setting forth these lamentable symptoms,
- 5:03Speaker 1: Missus Rankin emphatically asserted her belief that the affliction was
- 5:08Speaker 1: the result of heredity of the union between the naturally
- 5:12Speaker 1: opposing and contrary Beal and Rankin elements. She believed that
- 5:17Speaker 1: the inherited spirit of the ancient feud had taken on
- 5:20Speaker 1: physical manifestations, exhibiting them in the person of the unfortunate
- 5:26Speaker 1: outcome of the union of opposites, that in Miss Annabel
- 5:30Speaker 1: Rankin was warring the imperishable antipathy of the two families.
- 5:36Speaker 1: In other words, that one of Miss Rankins. That is
- 5:39Speaker 1: to say that when Miss Rankin took a step, it
- 5:42Speaker 1: was a beal step, and the next one was dominated
- 5:46Speaker 1: by the bequeathed opposition of the Rankins. Doctor Prince received
- 5:51Speaker 1: the communication with his usual grave professional attention, and promised
- 5:56Speaker 1: to call the next day at ten to inspect the patient.
- 6:00Speaker 1: Promptly at the hour, his electric runabout turned into the
- 6:03Speaker 1: line of stylish ottos and handsomes that weight along the
- 6:07Speaker 1: pavements before the most expensive hostelry on American soil. When
- 6:12Speaker 1: Miss Annabel Rankin entered the reception parlor of their choice
- 6:16Speaker 1: suite of rooms, Doctor Prince gave a little blink of
- 6:19Speaker 1: surprise through his brilliantly polished nose glasses. The glow of
- 6:24Speaker 1: perfect health and the contour of perfect beauty were visible
- 6:28Speaker 1: in the face and form of the young lady. But
- 6:31Speaker 1: admiration gave way to sympathy when he saw her walk.
- 6:35Speaker 1: She entered at a little run, swayed, stepped off helplessly
- 6:39Speaker 1: at a sharp tangent advanced marked time, backed off, recovered,
- 6:44Speaker 1: and siled with a maneuvering rush to a couch, where
- 6:47Speaker 1: she rested with a look of serious melancholy upon her
- 6:51Speaker 1: handsome face. Doctor Prince proceeded with his interrogatories in the delicate,
- 6:57Speaker 1: reassuringly gentlemanly manner that had brought him so many patrons
- 7:02Speaker 1: who placed a value upon those amenities. Miss Annabel answered
- 7:06Speaker 1: frankly and sensibly. Indeed, for one of her years, the
- 7:10Speaker 1: feud theory of missus Rankin was freely discussed. The daughter
- 7:14Speaker 1: also believed in it. Soon the physician departed, promising to
- 7:18Speaker 1: call again and administer treatment. Then he buzzed down the
- 7:22Speaker 1: avenue and four doors on an asphalted side street, to
- 7:26Speaker 1: the office of doctor Grumbleton Myers, the great specialist in
- 7:31Speaker 1: locomotor ataxia and nerve ailments. The two distinguished physicians shut
- 7:37Speaker 1: themselves in a private office, and the great Myers dragged
- 7:41Speaker 1: forth a decanter of sherry and a box of Havanas.
- 7:44Speaker 1: When the consultation was over, both shook their heads. Fact
- 7:49Speaker 1: is summed up, Myers. We don't know anything about anything.
- 7:53Speaker 1: I'd say treat symptoms now until something turns up. But
- 7:57Speaker 1: there are no symptoms. Do you diagnosis, then, suggested doctor Prince, archly,
- 8:03Speaker 1: ridding his cigar of its ash. It's an interesting case,
- 8:07Speaker 1: said the specialist, non committally. I say Prince called Myers
- 8:12Speaker 1: as his collar was leaving there. Sometimes you know children
- 8:17Speaker 1: that fight and quarrel are shut in separate rooms. Doesn't
- 8:20Speaker 1: it seem a pity now that bloomers aren't in fashion
- 8:24Speaker 1: by separt, but they aren't smiled, doctor Prince, And we
- 8:28Speaker 1: must be fashionable at any rate. Doctor Prince burned midnight
- 8:33Speaker 1: oil or its equivalent, a patent electric soft shaded midnight
- 8:38Speaker 1: incandescent over his case. With such little success did his
- 8:43Speaker 1: light shine that he was forced to make a little
- 8:46Speaker 1: speech to the rankins full of scientific terms, a thing
- 8:50Speaker 1: he conscientiously avoided with his patience, which shows that he
- 8:54Speaker 1: was driven to expedient. At last, he was reduced to
- 8:58Speaker 1: suggest treatment by hypnotisy. Being crowded further, he advised it
- 9:03Speaker 1: and appeared another day with Professor ad Dami, the most
- 9:07Speaker 1: reputable and non advertising one he could find among that
- 9:11Speaker 1: school of practitioners. Miss Annabel, gentle and melancholy, fell an
- 9:17Speaker 1: easy victim, or should I say, subject to the Professor's
- 9:20Speaker 1: influence previously instructed by Doctor Prince in the nature of
- 9:25Speaker 1: the malady he was about to combat. The dealer in
- 9:28Speaker 1: mental drugs proceeded to offer suggestion in the language of
- 9:33Speaker 1: his school to the afflicted and unconscious young lady, impressing
- 9:38Speaker 1: her mind with the conviction that her affliction was moonshine,
- 9:42Speaker 1: and her perambulatory powers without impairment. When the spell was removed,
- 9:47Speaker 1: Miss Rankin sat up, looking a little bewildered at first,
- 9:51Speaker 1: and then rose to her feet, walking straight across the
- 9:54Speaker 1: room with the grace, the sureness, and the ease of
- 9:57Speaker 1: a Diana, a Leslie Carter, or a Vassar basketball champion.
- 10:02Speaker 1: Miss Annabel's sad face was now lit with hope and joy.
- 10:06Speaker 1: Missus Rankin of southern susceptibility wept a little delightedly upon
- 10:12Speaker 1: a minute lace handkerchief. Miss Annabel continued to walk about
- 10:17Speaker 1: firmly and accurately, an absolute control of the machinery necessary
- 10:22Speaker 1: for her so to do. Doctor Prince quietly congratulated Professor adami,
- 10:28Speaker 1: and then stepped forward, smilingly, rubbing his nose glasses with
- 10:32Speaker 1: an air. His position enabled him to overshadow the hypnotizer,
- 10:36Speaker 1: who contented to occupy the background temporarily, was busy estimating
- 10:43Speaker 1: in his mind how large a bill for services he
- 10:46Speaker 1: would dare to embellish the occasion when he should come
- 10:49Speaker 1: to the front. Amid repeated expressions of gratitude, the two
- 10:53Speaker 1: professional gentlemen made their adiuse, a little elated at the
- 10:58Speaker 1: success of the treatment, which with one of them had
- 11:01Speaker 1: been an experiment, with the other an exhibition. As the
- 11:06Speaker 1: door closed behind them, Miss Annabel, her usually serious and
- 11:10Speaker 1: pensive temper, somewhat enlivened by the occasion, sat at the
- 11:14Speaker 1: piano and dashed into a stirring march outside. The two
- 11:18Speaker 1: men moving toward the elevator heard a scream of alarm
- 11:21Speaker 1: from her and hastened the back. They found her on
- 11:24Speaker 1: the piano stool, with one hand still pressing the keys.
- 11:28Speaker 1: The other arm was extended rigidly to its full length
- 11:31Speaker 1: behind her, its fingers tightly clenched into a pink and
- 11:36Speaker 1: pretty little fist. Her mother was bending over her, joining
- 11:40Speaker 1: in the alarm and surprise. Miss Wrenkon rose from the stool,
- 11:44Speaker 1: now quiet, but again depressed and sad. I don't know
- 11:48Speaker 1: what did it, she said, plaintively. I began to play,
- 11:52Speaker 1: and that arm shot back. It wouldn't stay near the piano.
- 11:55Speaker 1: While the other one was there. A ping pong table
- 11:59Speaker 1: stood in the room. A little game, Miss Rnkon, cried
- 12:02Speaker 1: Professor Adammy gaily, trying to feel his way. They played
- 12:07Speaker 1: with the racket in the refractory arm. Miss Annabel played
- 12:11Speaker 1: in fine style. Her control of it was perfect. The
- 12:14Speaker 1: professor laid down his racket. Ah, a button is loose
- 12:19Speaker 1: on my coat, he said, Such is the fate of
- 12:22Speaker 1: sorrowful bachelors. A needle and thread now, Miss Wrenkon, a
- 12:27Speaker 1: little surprised, but smilingly acquiescence Annabel brought the articles from
- 12:31Speaker 1: another room. Now thread the needle, if you please, said
- 12:35Speaker 1: Professor Adamy. Annabel bit off two feet of the black silk.
- 12:40Speaker 1: When she came to thread the needle, the secret was out.
- 12:43Speaker 1: As the hand presenting the thread approached the other holding
- 12:46Speaker 1: the needle, that arm was jerked violently away. Doctor Prince
- 12:51Speaker 1: was first to reduce the painful discovery to words, Dear
- 12:55Speaker 1: miss and missus Rankin, he said, in his most musical
- 12:59Speaker 1: consolation bearer tone, you have been only partially successful. The affliction,
- 13:04Speaker 1: Miss Rankin, has passed premuere. That is, the affliction is
- 13:08Speaker 1: now in your arms. Oh, dear, sighed Annabel, I have
- 13:13Speaker 1: a bal arm and a Rankin arm. Then well, I
- 13:16Speaker 1: can use one hand at a time anyway. People won't
- 13:20Speaker 1: notice it as they did before. Oh what an annoyance
- 13:23Speaker 1: those feuds were. To be sure, it seems to me
- 13:27Speaker 1: they should make laws against them. Doctor Prince looked inquiringly
- 13:32Speaker 1: at Professor Adanni. That gentleman shook his head. Another day,
- 13:37Speaker 1: he said, I prefer not to establish the condition at
- 13:40Speaker 1: a lesser interval than two or three days. So three
- 13:44Speaker 1: days afterward they returned and the professor replaced Miss Rankin
- 13:49Speaker 1: under control. This time there was apparently perfect success. She
- 13:54Speaker 1: came forth from the trance, and with full muscular powers,
- 13:58Speaker 1: she walked the floor with sure rhythmic step. She played
- 14:02Speaker 1: several difficult selections upon the piano, the hands and arms
- 14:06Speaker 1: moving with propriety and with allied ease. Miss Rankin seemed
- 14:10Speaker 1: at last to possess a perfectly well ordered physical being,
- 14:15Speaker 1: as well as a very grateful mental one. A week afterward,
- 14:20Speaker 1: there wafted into Doctor Prince's office a youth generously gilded.
- 14:25Speaker 1: The hall marks of society were deeply writ upon him.
- 14:29Speaker 1: I'm Ashburton, he explained t Ripley Ashburton. You know I
- 14:35Speaker 1: am engaged to Miss Rankin. I understand you have been
- 14:39Speaker 1: training her for some breaks in her gates. T Ripley
- 14:42Speaker 1: Ashburton caught himself. Didn't mean that, you know, slipped out,
- 14:47Speaker 1: been loafing around stables quite a lot. I say, Doctor Prince,
- 14:52Speaker 1: I want you to tell me candidly. You know I
- 14:55Speaker 1: am awful spoons on Miss Ranken. Were to be married
- 14:59Speaker 1: in the fall, you might consider me one of the family.
- 15:03Speaker 1: You know. They told me about the treatment you gave
- 15:06Speaker 1: her with the uh medium fellow that set her up wonderfully.
- 15:11Speaker 1: I assure you she goes freely now and handles her forum.
- 15:16Speaker 1: I mean, you know she's over all that old trouble.
- 15:20Speaker 1: But there's something else started up that's making the track
- 15:23Speaker 1: pretty heavy, so I called. Don't you understand I have
- 15:28Speaker 1: not been advised, said Doctor Prince of any recurrence of
- 15:31Speaker 1: Miss Rankin's indisposition. T Ripley Ashburton produced a silver cigarette
- 15:37Speaker 1: case and contemplated it tenderly. Receiving no encouragement, he replaced
- 15:43Speaker 1: it in his pocket with a sigh. Not a recurrence,
- 15:46Speaker 1: he said, thoughtfully, but something different. Possibly. I am the
- 15:51Speaker 1: only one in a position to know. Hate to discuss it,
- 15:54Speaker 1: reveal cupid secrets, you know, such a jolly loath thing
- 15:58Speaker 1: to do. But suppose the occasion justifies it. If you
- 16:03Speaker 1: possess any information or have observed anything, said Doctor Prince
- 16:07Speaker 1: judicially through which Miss Rankin's condition might be benefited, it is
- 16:12Speaker 1: your duty, of course to apply it in her behalf.
- 16:16Speaker 1: I need hardly remind you that such disclosures are held
- 16:20Speaker 1: as secrets on professional honor. I believe I mentioned, said
- 16:24Speaker 1: mister Ashburton, his fingers still hovering around the pocket containing
- 16:28Speaker 1: his cigarette case. That Miss Rankin and I are ever
- 16:32Speaker 1: so sweet upon each other. She's a jolly swell girl
- 16:36Speaker 1: if she did come from the Kentucky mountains. Lately she's
- 16:39Speaker 1: acted awful queerly. She's awful affectionate one minute, and the
- 16:44Speaker 1: next she turns me down like a perfect stranger. Last
- 16:48Speaker 1: night I called at the hotel and she met me
- 16:51Speaker 1: at the door of their rooms. Nobody was in sight,
- 16:54Speaker 1: and she gave me an awful nice kiss er engaged,
- 16:58Speaker 1: you know, doctor Prince, and then she fired away and
- 17:02Speaker 1: gave me an awful hard slap in the face. I
- 17:05Speaker 1: hate the sight of you, she said, How dare you
- 17:08Speaker 1: take the liberty? Mister Ashburton drew an envelope from his
- 17:12Speaker 1: pocket and extracted from it a sheet of note paper
- 17:16Speaker 1: of delicate heliotrophe tint. You might read this note you know.
- 17:21Speaker 1: Can't say it's a medical case, pawn, my honor, but
- 17:24Speaker 1: I'm awfully queered, don't you understand, Doctor Prince? Read the
- 17:29Speaker 1: following lines, My dearest ripley, do come around this evening
- 17:34Speaker 1: there's a dear boy and take me out somewhere. Mamma
- 17:38Speaker 1: has a headache and says she'll be glad to be
- 17:40Speaker 1: rid of both of us for a while. Twas so
- 17:43Speaker 1: sweet of you to send those pond lilies. They're just
- 17:47Speaker 1: what I wanted for the east windows. You, darling boy,
- 17:51Speaker 1: you're so thoughtful and good. I am sure you're worth
- 17:54Speaker 1: all the love of your very own Annabel p s.
- 18:00Speaker 1: On second thoughts, I will ask you not to call
- 18:02Speaker 1: this evening, as I shall be otherwise engaged. Perhaps it
- 18:06Speaker 1: never occurred to you that there may be two opinions
- 18:10Speaker 1: about the vast pleasure you seem to think your society
- 18:13Speaker 1: affords others. Clothes and small talk of clubhouses and greats
- 18:17Speaker 1: treks hardly ever succeed in making a man without other accessories.
- 18:23Speaker 1: Very respectfully, Annabel Rankin, being deprived of the aid of
- 18:28Speaker 1: his consolation cylinders t ripley Ashburton sat gloomily revolving things
- 18:35Speaker 1: in his mind. Ah, exclaimed Doctor Prince aloud, but addressing
- 18:40Speaker 1: the exclamation to himself. Driven from the arms to the heart,
- 18:44Speaker 1: he perceived that the mysterious hereditary contrariety had indeed taken
- 18:51Speaker 1: up its lodging in that tender organ of the afflicted maiden.
- 18:55Speaker 1: The gilded youth was dismissed with the promise that Doctor
- 18:59Speaker 1: Prince would make a professional call upon Miss Rankin. He
- 19:03Speaker 1: did so soon in the company with Professor Adami, after
- 19:06Speaker 1: they had discussed the strange course taken by this annoying
- 19:10Speaker 1: heritage of the Beals and Rankins. This time, as the
- 19:14Speaker 1: location of the disorder required that the subject be approached
- 19:17Speaker 1: with ingenuity, some diplomacy was exercised before the young lady
- 19:22Speaker 1: could be induced to submit herself to the Professor's art.
- 19:26Speaker 1: But evidently she did so, and emerged from the trance
- 19:29Speaker 1: as usual without a trace of unpleasant effect. With much
- 19:34Speaker 1: interest and some anxiety, Doctor Prince passed several days awaiting
- 19:39Speaker 1: the report of mister Ashburton, who, indeed, of all others,
- 19:44Speaker 1: would have to be depended upon to observe improvements if
- 19:48Speaker 1: any had occurred. One morning that youth dropped in jubilant
- 19:52Speaker 1: It's all right, you know, he declared cheerfully. Miss rankins
- 19:57Speaker 1: herself again. She's as sweet as and the troubles all off,
- 20:03Speaker 1: never a cross wordered. Look, I am her ducky, all right.
- 20:07Speaker 1: She won't believe what I tell her about the way
- 20:10Speaker 1: she used to treat me, intimates that I make up
- 20:13Speaker 1: the stories. But it's all right now. Everything's running on
- 20:16Speaker 1: rubber tires, awfully obliged to you and the old boy,
- 20:21Speaker 1: the medium, you know. And I say, now, Doctor Prince,
- 20:25Speaker 1: there's a wonderful improvement in miss Franken in every way.
- 20:30Speaker 1: She used to be rather stiff, don't you understand, sort
- 20:33Speaker 1: of superior in a way, bookish, and a habit of
- 20:36Speaker 1: thinking things. You know. Well, she's cured all round. She's
- 20:41Speaker 1: a topper now by any bunch in the set, swell
- 20:45Speaker 1: and stylish and lively. Oh, the crowd will fall into
- 20:49Speaker 1: her lead when she becomes missus t ripley. Now, I say,
- 20:54Speaker 1: Doctor Prince, you and the medium gentlemen, come and take
- 20:59Speaker 1: supper tonight with if missus and miss Rankon and me,
- 21:02Speaker 1: I'd be delighted if you would, now, I would indeed
- 21:06Speaker 1: just for you to see, you know, the improvement in
- 21:09Speaker 1: Miss Rankon. It transpired that Doctor Prince and Professor Adami
- 21:14Speaker 1: accepted mister Ashburton's invitation. They convened at the hotel in
- 21:19Speaker 1: the rooms of the Rankins. From there they were to
- 21:22Speaker 1: proceed to the restaurant honored by mister Ashburton's patronage. When
- 21:27Speaker 1: Miss Rankin swept gracefully into the room, the professional gentleman
- 21:31Speaker 1: felt fascination and surprised, conflicting in their feelings. She was radiant, bewitching,
- 21:37Speaker 1: lively to effervescence. Her mother and mister Ashburton hung and
- 21:43Speaker 1: raptured upon her looks and words. She was most becomingly
- 21:48Speaker 1: clothed in pale blue oh bother. She suddenly exclaimed, most vivaciously,
- 21:54Speaker 1: I don't like this dress after all, you must all wait,
- 21:58Speaker 1: she commanded, with a captive beating fling of her train
- 22:01Speaker 1: until I change. Half an hour later, she returned, magnificent
- 22:06Speaker 1: in a stunning costume of black lace. I'll walk with
- 22:10Speaker 1: you downstairs, Professor Adami, she declared, with a charming smile.
- 22:15Speaker 1: Half Way down, she left his sight abruptly and joined,
- 22:18Speaker 1: Doctor Prince, you have been such a benefit to me,
- 22:22Speaker 1: she said. It's such a relief to get rid of
- 22:24Speaker 1: that horrid feud thing. Heavens, Ripley, did you forget those bonbonds? Oh?
- 22:30Speaker 1: This horrid black dress. I shouldn't have worn it. It
- 22:34Speaker 1: makes me think of funerals. Did you get the scent
- 22:37Speaker 1: of those lilacs? Then? It makes me think of the
- 22:40Speaker 1: Kentucky Mountains. How I wish I were back there. Aren't
- 22:44Speaker 1: you fond of New York? Then asked Doctor Prince, regarding
- 22:48Speaker 1: her interestedly. She started at the sound of his voice
- 22:52Speaker 1: and looked up vivaciously. Indeed I am, she said earnestly.
- 22:57Speaker 1: I adore New York. Why I could live without theaters
- 23:01Speaker 1: and dances and my daily drives here? Oh, Ripley, she
- 23:06Speaker 1: called over her shoulder. Don't get that bull pup, I
- 23:09Speaker 1: wanted I've changed my mind. I want a Pomeranian. Now,
- 23:13Speaker 1: don't forget they arrived on the pavement. Oh a carriage,
- 23:17Speaker 1: exclaimed Miss Rankin. I don't want a carriage, I want
- 23:21Speaker 1: a natto. Send it away, all right, said Rashburton, cheerily.
- 23:25Speaker 1: I thought you set a carriage in obedience to orders.
- 23:29Speaker 1: The carriage rolled away, and an open otto glided up
- 23:32Speaker 1: in its place. Stuffy smelly thing, cried Miss Rankin with
- 23:36Speaker 1: a winsome pout. We'll walk ripley. You and doctor Prince
- 23:41Speaker 1: look out for mamma. Come on, Professor Adami. The indulgent
- 23:45Speaker 1: victims of the charming beauty obeyed. The dear dear child
- 23:50Speaker 1: exclaimed missus Rankin happily to doctor Prince. How full of
- 23:53Speaker 1: spirits and life she is getting to be. She's so
- 23:56Speaker 1: much improved from her old self lots, said Ashburton, proudly
- 24:01Speaker 1: and fatuously. She's picked up the regular metropolitan gates. She
- 24:06Speaker 1: can swell. Don't begin to express her. She's cut out
- 24:10Speaker 1: the pensive thought business up to date? Why she changes
- 24:14Speaker 1: her mind every two minutes? That's Annabelle. At the fashionable
- 24:18Speaker 1: restaurant where they were soon seated, Doctor Prince found his curiosity,
- 24:22Speaker 1: an interest engaged by Miss Frankin's behavior. She was in
- 24:27Speaker 1: an agreeably fascinating humor. Her actions were such as might
- 24:31Speaker 1: be expected from an adored child whose vacillating whims were
- 24:35Speaker 1: indulged by groveling relatives. She ordered article after article from
- 24:40Speaker 1: the Bill of fare, petulantly countermanding nearly everyone when they
- 24:44Speaker 1: were set before her, waiters flew and returned, collided, conciliated, apologized,
- 24:51Speaker 1: and danced at her bidding. Her speech was quick and lively,
- 24:55Speaker 1: deliciously inconsistent, abounding in contradictions, conflict these statements, bowl's discrepancies
- 25:02Speaker 1: and nonconformities. In short, she seemed to have acquired within
- 25:07Speaker 1: the space of a few days all that inconsequent illogical
- 25:11Speaker 1: frothiness that passes current among certain circles of fashionable life.
- 25:16Speaker 1: Mister t Ripley Ashburton shouted doating appreciation and added the
- 25:21Speaker 1: light at the new charms of his fiancee, charms that
- 25:25Speaker 1: he at once recognized as the legal tender of his set. Later,
- 25:30Speaker 1: when the party had broken up, Doctor Prince and Professor
- 25:33Speaker 1: Adami stood for a moment at a corner where their
- 25:36Speaker 1: ways were to diverge. Well said the professor, who was
- 25:40Speaker 1: genially softened by the excellent supper and wine. This time,
- 25:44Speaker 1: our young lady seems to be more fortunate. The malady
- 25:47Speaker 1: has been eradicated completely from her entity. Yes, sir, in
- 25:51Speaker 1: good time, our school will be recognized by all. Doctor
- 25:56Speaker 1: Prince scrutinized the handsome, refined countenance of the hypnotis. He
- 26:00Speaker 1: saw nothing there to indicate that his own diagnosis was
- 26:03Speaker 1: even guessed at by that gentleman. As you say, he
- 26:07Speaker 1: made answer. She appears to have recovered, as far as
- 26:10Speaker 1: her friends can judge. When he could spare the time,
- 26:14Speaker 1: Doctor Prince again invaded the sanctum of the Great Grumbleton Myers,
- 26:19Speaker 1: and together they absorbed the poison of nicotine. Yes, said
- 26:23Speaker 1: the Great Myers. When the door was opened and Doctor
- 26:26Speaker 1: Prince began to ooze out with the smoke. I think
- 26:28Speaker 1: you have come to the right decision. As long as
- 26:31Speaker 1: none of the persons concerned has any suspicion of the
- 26:34Speaker 1: truth and is happy in the present circumstances, I don't
- 26:38Speaker 1: think it necessary to inform him that the feuditis below
- 26:42Speaker 1: room at Rankin or room house, the Latin doctor has
- 26:46Speaker 1: only been driven to miss Rankin's brain and of Section
- 26:51Speaker 1: five