"It is rank charity, of course," the doctor has had grace to admit—"charity of the filthiest description. But we do flatter ourselves that our little effort is free from the deadly sin of 'overlapping.' There isn't a really deserving case on our list."
The Hon. Mrs. Strudwicke-Moses had received an early invitation to assist this fund, and had lost no time in doing so, the doctor having intimated that cocoa had also competed. And now the honourable lady was come to take tea.
"I cannot tell you," she said, "how much I admire the quiet, unostentatious, truly Christian heroism of you East End doctors. It may truly be said of you that you give your all."
"How so?" inquired the doctor.
"Well, look at you!" responded Mrs. Strudwicke-Moses. "Here you are, in voluntary exile, living amid filth and squalor, denying yourself every luxury, even that of fresh air, in order to devote yourself to alleviating the sufferings of our neglected poor."
"You flatter me," the doctor said.
"Not at all," responded his visitor. "Compare yourself with any even of our most eminent philanthropists. They only supply the poor with money—they merely give of their abundance. Now you, and men like you (pardon my mentioning it, but I cannot help pointing this out to you) you give yourselves. You actually see and touch the poor things, even the most unpleasant of them."
"That's true," admitted Doctor Brink, with the respectful air of one who has been introduced to a new and important truth. "But," he added, "they jolly well pay me for it."
The lady made a pretty sign of disagreement. "You cannot make me believe," she said, "that men like you are actuated by thoughts of gain. It is the cry of suffering which brings you here."
"That's true, madam," assented the doctor. "A cry of suffering which emanated from a bank. As for the pay question, I may assure you that I attach the very greatest importance to their sixpences. You see, there is a clear profit—medicine and bottle included—of fivepence farthing on every one of them, even the most unpleasant. I am saving up, you know, to buy a property—some pleasantly situated place in Scotland with a trout-stream. I have lived on animals all my life, and I want to try fish for a change."