Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/233

 Doctor Springsfeld was not one of those physicians who know nothing beyond pills and potions; he was a man who could render himself agreeable to his patients, by no end of stories and anecdotes, professional, political, historical, and miscellaneous, which contributed, in a great degree, to keep up their spirits, and make him popular. On quitting the Countess and proceeding to his usual round, he entertained every one he visited with an account of his singular interview with the new-comers, adding divers embellishments, which tended to make out the whole party to be a set of most eccentric, nay, absurd personages. Everybody became anxious to see them, and the Countess, in particular, became the topic of the day at Carlsbad.

When she appeared with her amiable daughters, for the first time at the rooms, the whole company at the Baths were assembled to meet them. How great was the amazement of mother and daughters, on entering the rooms, to find themselves in the same party with whom they had spent the evening in the castle of Lord Giantdale. The Count with all his ribands and orders, the portly Canon, the paralytic Counsellor of Finance, were all there; how delightful! they would thus escape the tedium of a ceremonious introduction to strangers. Not one person in the room but was already known to them. The Countess conversed, now with one, now with another, in an