Page:The elephant man and other reminiscences.djvu/216

204 little girl of about three, almost as pretty as her mother. She was the only child and had developed tuberculous disease in one foot. The mother had taken the little thing to a young surgeon who appears to have let fall some rash remark as to taking the foot off. This was enough for the mother. She would not listen to another syllable. She, whom I came to know later as one of the sweetest and gentlest of women, changed at the moment to a wild animal—a tigress.

Without a word she snatched up the baby and bolted from the house, leaving the child's sock and shoe on the consulting-room floor. She had been given my name as a possible person to consult and had dashed off to my house, carrying the child through the streets with its bare foot and leg dangling in the air. On being admitted she asked which was my room. It was pointed out to her, and without more ado she flung herself in as I have described. The child, I may say, was beaming with delight. This dashing in and out of other people's houses and being carried through the streets without a sock or a shoe on her foot struck her as a delicious and exciting game.

The mother's fury against my surgical colleague was almost inexpressible. If the poor man had suggested cutting off the child's head he could