"No, indeed! I only wanted you to notice what the doctor was saying. What was it?"
"The first time was when he said his patients could visit him and get their remedies at the same time."
"Yes, just his benevolence. Those are his poor patients, you see, for whom he has set up that dispensary; he gives them advice and medicine free."
"But then he must have money."
"So he has, a little; but he uses up every cent and more; for he sends some to his mother and sister, and takes ever so much care of the poor for miles around."
"But he must have fees from his rich patients; you told me he was as popular at Sealing as here."
"Certainly they pay him; but he does not encourage a large practice in Sealing, for there is a very good doctor living there, with a wife and family. So though Dr. James visits a few patients in Sealing, they are almost all people who used to live here, and are now not willing to give him up. But his fees could not begin to enable him to do all he does, if he had not something of his own."
"The second time you admonished me was when he spoke of his boy."
Miss Spelman laughed contemptuously.