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By Root 1049 0

the only one who fully understood the cause of Kitty’s illness. ‘What a gabbler,’ he thought, mentally applying this barnyard term to the famous doctor and listening to his chatter about the symptoms of his daughter’s illness. The doctor meanwhile found it hard to keep from expressing his contempt for the old gentleman and descending to the low level of his understanding. He understood that there was no point in talking with the old man, and that the head of this house was the mother. It was before her that he intended to strew his pearls. Just then the princess came into the drawing room with the family doctor. The prince stepped aside, trying not to show how ridiculous this whole comedy was to him. The princess was bewildered and did not know what to do. She felt herself guilty before Kitty.

‘Well, doctor, decide our fate,’ she said. ‘Tell me everything.’ (‘Is there any hope?’ she wanted to say, but her lips trembled and she could not get the question out.) ‘Well, what is it, doctor? ...’

‘I will presently confer with my colleague, Princess, and then I will have the honour of reporting my opinion to you.’

‘So we should leave you?’

‘As you please.’

The princess sighed and went out.

When the doctors were left alone, the family physician timidly began to present his opinion, according to which there was the start of a tubercular condition, but ... and so forth. The famous doctor listened to him and in the middle of his speech looked at his large gold watch.

‘Indeed,’ he said. ‘But...’

The family physician fell respectfully silent in the middle of his speech.

‘As you know, we cannot diagnose the start of a tubercular condition. Nothing is definite until cavities appear. But we can suspect. And there are indications: poor appetite, nervous excitation and so on. The question stands thus: given the suspicion of a tubercular condition, what must be done to maintain the appetite?’

‘But, you know, there are always some hidden moral and spiritual causes,’ the family doctor allowed himself to put in with a subtle smile.

‘Yes, that goes without saying,’ the famous doctor replied, glancing at his watch again. ‘Excuse me, has the Yauza bridge been put up, or must one still go round?’ he asked. ‘Ah, put up! Well, then I can make it in twenty minutes. So, as we were saying, the question is put thus: to maintain the appetite and repair the nerves. The one is connected with the other, we must work on both sides of the circle.’

‘And a trip abroad?’ asked the family doctor.

‘I am an enemy of trips abroad. And kindly note: if there is the start of a tubercular condition, which is something we cannot know, then a trip abroad will not help. What’s needed is a remedy that will maintain the appetite without being harmful.’

And the famous doctor presented his plan of treatment by Soden waters, the main aim in the prescription of which evidently being that they could do no harm.

The family doctor listened attentively and respectfully.

‘But in favour of a trip abroad I would point to the change of habits, the removal from conditions evoking memories. Then, too, the mother wants it,’ he said.

‘Ah! Well, in that case let them go; only, those German charlatans will do harm ... They must listen to ... Well, then let them go.’

He glanced at his watch again.

‘Oh! it’s time,’ and he went to the door.

The famous doctor announced to the princess (a sense of propriety prompted it) that he must see the patient again.

‘What! Another examination!’ the mother exclaimed with horror.

‘Oh, no, just a few details, Princess.’

‘If you please.’

And the mother, accompanied by the doctor, went to Kitty in the drawing room. Emaciated and red-cheeked, with a special glitter in her eyes as a result of the shame she had endured, Kitty was standing in the middle of the room. When the doctor entered she blushed and her eyes filled with tears. Her whole illness and treatment seemed to her such a stupid, even ridiculous thing! Her treatment seemed to her as ridiculous as putting together the pieces of a broken vase. Her heart was broken. And what did they