Page:Tales of Three Cities (Boston, James R. Osgood & Co., 1884).djvu/154

142 "Oh, if Thackeray could have done this!" Mrs, Freer exclaimed, with a good deal of expression.

"You mean all this scene?" asked the young man.

"No; the marriage of a British noblewoman and an American doctor. It would have been a subject for Thackeray."

"You see you do want it, my dear," said Dexter Freer, quietly.

"I want it as a story, but I don't want it for Dr. Lemon."

"Does he call himself 'Doctor' still?" Mr. Freer asked of young Feeder.

"I suppose he does; I call him so. Of course he does n't practise. But once a doctor, always a doctor."

"That 's doctrine for Lady Barb!"

Sidney Feeder stared. "Has n't she got a title too? What would she expect him to be? President of the United States? He 's a man of real ability; he might have stood at the head of his profession. When I think of that, I want to swear. What did his father want to go and make all that money for!"

"It must certainly be odd to them to see a 'medical man' with six or eight millions," Mr. Freer observed.

"They use the same term as the Choctaws," said his wife.

"Why, some of their own physicians made immense fortunes," Sidney Feeder declared.

"Could n't he be made a baronet by the Queen?" This suggestion came from Mrs. Freer.