HEARTS OF GOLD

8. SEVEN CORNERS

114 SEVEN CORNERS. Chapter VIII. The office of Dr. Frank Leighton was called “Hub of Seven Corners .” Four streets converged to form the circle, in the centre of which stood his office, like the hub of a wheel. The drugstore on one corner ended the square like the apex of a triangle. Each of the other three blocks was in the form of a trapezoid, whose lesser base faced the circle. Although a physician, Dr. Leighton did not practice medicine as the ordinary acceptation of the term implies. He was a specialist—a specialist of symptoms. Five friends graduated from an eastern medical college eight years previous to the events which we are transcribing. One evening near the close of their medical course, the friends met to engage in a farewell supper. As each talked of his intentions and hopes, one of them was inclined to take a discouraging view of the whole subject. He expatiated upon the barren results which usually attended the administration of medicine to the cure of diseases. He made a singular proposal, and thereon hangs a tale. He said that as medicine had been almost vivisected by the introduction of specialties, why not end the agony and make one that would cover all of them? He proposed to divide the followers of Aesculapius into two general divisions; the first to devote their entire time to the diagnosis of diseases, the second to their treatment. The work of the first class to end, when the condition of the patient was ascertained; the second class to cure the derangement, if it be not beyond the reach of science. The five doctors, being men of means, decided to go to Europe and take a post-graduate course. They subsequently put this decision into practice by spending three years abroad; two of them bending their energies to the causes and symptoms of diseases; the other three to the cure of 115 hearts of gold ailments. It was a part of the plan to give to difficult surgical operations the united wisdom of the five. When these doctors returned to their native land, Mt. Clare was chosen as the best site to begin the new departure. The size of the place had much to do with the selection. The city was divided into three districts, with an office of a specialist of cures in each. The Hub of Seven Corners was the location of the office of the specialists of symptoms . The system, which at first would seem unwieldy and expensive, was offset by the superior skill of the practitioners. At the time of our story the specialists of symptoms had gained an enviable reputation by their unerring correctness in diagnosis; nor was their success more pronounced than their brother specialists, who had reaped a rich harvest from the increase of patients their skill had secured. The resident physicians had at first ridiculed the scheme as the invention of quacks, but failing in their attempt to laugh the specialists out of the city, had finally combined in a similar arrangement. Dr. Frank Leighton was the mouthpiece and inspiration of the new fraternity. A handsome, well born Southern gentleman, he gained and held an enviable reputation. It has been previously mentioned that he was a nephew of Mrs. Underwood and, Regenia excepted, the only direct heir to her property. This fact had due weight in the choice of Mt. Clare as the place best suited to introduce his much cherished innovation in the field of medical reform. Having determined to cultivate the good graces of his aunt, his suavity had early installed him as a prime favorite in her affections. Hardly a day passed that he did not find time to drive out to the “Elms.” His movements had long since ceased to be a matter of concern to the family, so thoroughly did he ingratiate himself. Mrs. Underwood sought his advice in nearly every change she made in the management of her affairs. Regenia liked him, also. He was frank and jovial with her in that degree men of experience find it so easy to be with girls of her years. As he sat in his office on the morning after the boat ride, Dr. Leighton was in any other than an amiable mood. He had a well-bred man’s feelings after a night’s reflection upon the fact that he has behaved badly. He wondered if Regenia had observed what must have been so manifest to her new...