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72 The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane sides, and burst out into an immoderate fit of laughter. It was not without reason; for having a cloak that trailed on the ground, with a doublet and breeches that would have served a man four times as big as me; my figure was truly original. I let him laugh till he was tired, not without being tempted to follow his example; but I constrained myself in order to preserve decorum, and the better ape the physician who is no risible animal. If my ludicrous appearance had excited the mirth of Fabricius, my gravity increased it; and when he had indulged it sufficiently, “Upon my conscience, Gil Blas, (said he) thou art pleasantly equipt. Who the devil has disguised thee in this manner?” “Softly, friend, (replied I) softly.—Learn to shew more respect for another Hippocrates; and know, that I am the deputy of doctor Sangrado, the most celebrated physician of Valladolid , with whom I have lived these three weeks. He has taught me physic to the very bottom, and as he cannot, in person, attend all the sick who send for him, I assist him in his visitation: he takes care of the great, and I of the plebeians.” “Very well, (replied Fabricius) he leaves the blood of the commonalty to thee, while he reserves that of the gentry to himself: I congratulate thee upon thy share; for it is better to have to do with the populace, than with persons of fashion; happy is a suburb physician! his faults are less observed, and his assassinations less known. Yes, my child, (added he,) thy situation is to be envied, and to speak in the words of Alexander, if I was not Fabricius, I could wish to be Gil Blas.”13 To shew the son of Barber Nunnez, that he had reason to praise the happiness of my present condition, I produced the rials which I had received from the alguazil, and pastry-cook; upon which, we went into a public-house in order to spend some of them: here we were served with pretty good wine, which the longing desire I had of tasting that liquor, making me think still better than it was, I drank huge draughts of it, and (no disparagement to the Roman oracle) the more I filled my stomach, the less did that organ complain of the injury it received. Fabricius and I having staid together a long time, in the public-house, and laughed heartily at the expence of our masters, as the custom is among servants; we parted in the twilight, after having made a mutual promise of meeting again in the same place, next day in the afternoon. chapter iv. Gil Blas continues to act the physician with equal capacity and success.— The adventure of the ring retrieved. Ihad just got home, when doctor Sangrado came in, to whom I gave an account of the patients I had visited, and put into his hand eight reals which remained of the twelve I had received for my prescriptions. “Eight reals! (said he, after having counted them,) this is a small matter for two visits; but we must refuse nothing.” So it appeared: for he kept six, and giving me two, “Hold, Gil Blas, (added he) there is something for Volume One: II.4 73 thee to begin stock: I allow thee a fourth part of what thou shalt get, and thou wilt be rich in a very short time, (my friend) for, please God, there will be plenty of diseases this season.” I had reason to be contented with my share; because, resolving to detain always, a fourth part of what I should receive from the patients, and afterwards, touching a fourth of what should remain, it would on the whole (if there be any truth in arithmetic ) amount to one half of what I should earn. This consideration inspiring me with a new ardour for my profession, next day when I had dined, I resumed my physical dress, and going out, visited several patients whom I had registred, and whom I treated after the same manner, tho’ their distempers were quite different. Hitherto, things had gone smoothly on, and no body (thank heaven) found fault with my prescriptions; but howsoever excellent the practice of physic may be, it cannot scape censure: going into the house of a grocer whose son was dropsical, I there met with a little swarthy physician called doctor Cuchillo...

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