"I wish our earthly doctors had glasses like these," I ventured, taking them off, for truly I was beginning to fancy a strain.
"They have—or at least they have something quite as good," said Æsculapius. "They are all my disciples, and in the best instances they can see through the average patient without them. They have insight. You don't believe you deceive your physician, do you?"
"I have sometimes thought so," said I, not realizing the trap the doctor was setting.
"How foolish!" he cried. "Why should you wish to?"
I was covered with confusion.
"Never mind," said Æsculapius, smiling pleasantly. "You are only human and cannot help yourself. It is your imagination leads you astray. Half the time when you send for your physician there is nothing the matter with you."
"He always prescribes," I retorted.
"That is for your comfort, not his," said Æsculapius, firmly.
"And sometimes they operate when it isn't necessary," I put in, persistently.