 | Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family |  |
VARICOSE VEINS.
“What is the matter with Mrs. Jewks, doctor?”
asked Mrs. Partington, as Dr. Bolus passed her house.
She had been watching for him for half an hour through
a chink in the door, and people who detected the end of
a nose thrust out of the chink aforesaid, stopped an
instant to look at it, strongly inclined to touch it and see
what it was.
“She is troubled with varicose veins, mem,” replied
the doctor, blandly.
“Do tell!” cried the old lady; “well, that accounts
for her very coarse behavior, then, and it is n't any fault
o' her'n, arter all, poor woman, 'cause what is to be will
be, and if one has very coarse veins what can one
expect? Ah, we are none of us better than we ought to
be!”
“Good morning, mem,” said Dr. Bolus, as he turned
away, and the old lady shut the door.
“No better than we ought to be!” What an original
remark, and how candid the admission! The little
front entry heard it, and the broad stair that led to the
chamber heard it, and Ike heard it, as he sat in the
kitchen, daubing up the old lady's Pembroke table with
flour paste, in an attempt to make a kite out of a choicely-saved
copy of the Puritan Recorder. “We are no better
than we ought to be” — generally.
| Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family | |