I was fairly struck dumb with amazement at first.
Then I said, "The age of the patient has nothing to do with a physician's charges. Where did you get such an extraordinary idea?"
"I don't have to pay for her on the horse-cars."
"Madam," I said, provoked, "I will not argue with you. You ought to know that no physician treats children free. If you were very poor, and lived in a tenement house, I might make some discount, or leave off the charge altogether."
"But I don't live in a tenement house," objected the lady, angrily.
"No; you have the appearance of being very well to do. I must distinctly decline abating my charge."
"Then, Dr. Fenwick," said the mother, stiffly, "I shall not employ you again."
"That is as you please, madam."
This seemed to me exceptionally mean, but doctors see a good deal of the mean side of human nature. Rich men with large incomes keep them out of their pay for a long time, sometimes where their lives depended on the physician's skill and fidelity. Oftentimes I have been so disgusted with the meanness of my patients, that I have regretted not choosing a different profession. Of course there is a different side to the picture, and gratitude and appreciation are to be found, as well as the opposite qualities.