Prev | Current Page 126 | Next

Grand, Sarah

"Ideala"

He is
Adviser in General at the Great Hospital--a responsible position; and I
am sure, if you go, he will be glad to do the honours of the place,
which is most interesting."
Ideala had felt from the first that she would rather consult a stranger
who would be disinterested and unprejudiced. This gentleman's name
promised well for him, for he belonged to people whose integrity was
well known; and his position vouched for his ability--and also for his
age to Ideala, whose imagination had pictured a learned old gentleman,
bald, spectacled, benevolent, full of knowledge of the world, "wise
saws and modern instances." No one, she thought, could be better suited
for her purpose; and accordingly, next day, after attending to her
household duties, she went by an early train to consult him.


CHAPTER XIV.

The Great Hospital had been founded by an eccentric old gentleman of
enormous wealth for an entirely original purpose. He observed that
great buildings were erected everywhere to receive patients suffering
from all imaginable bodily ills, chronic mania, of course, when the
brain was diseased, being one of them; but no one had thought of making
provision for such troubles, mental, moral, and religious, as affect
the mind; and he held that such suffering was as real, and, without
proper treatment, as incurable and disastrous, as any form of physical
ailment.


Pages:
114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138