Leslie insisted upon
establishing her for a few days as chief nurse and overseer, and
before Nan had been at work many months her teacher found her of great
use, and grew more proud and glad day by day as he watched her
determination, her enthusiasm, and her excellent progress. Over and
over again he said to himself, or to her, that she was doing the work
for which nature had meant her, and when the time came for her to go
away from Oldfields, it seemed more impossible than it ever had before
that he should get on without her, at home, or as an independent human
being, who was following reverently in the path he had chosen so many
years before. For her sake he had reached out again toward many
acquaintances from whom he had drifted away, and he made many short
journeys to Boston or to New York, and was pleased at his hearty
welcome back to the medical meetings he had hardly entered during so
many years. He missed not a few old friends, but he quickly made new
ones. He was vastly pleased when the younger men seemed glad to hear
him speak, and it was often proved that either through study or
experience he had caught at some fresh knowledge of which his
associates were still ignorant. He had laughingly accused himself of
being a rusty country doctor and old fogy who had not kept up with the
times; but many a letter followed him home, with thanks for some
helpful suggestion or advice as to the management of a troublesome
case. He was too far away to give room for any danger of professional
jealousy, or for the infringement of that ever lengthening code of
etiquette so important to the sensitive medical mind.
Pages:
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179