He was greatly relieved, therefore, when Father Forbes explained in an incidental way that Dr.Ledsmar and he customarily ate their meals almost without a word.
"It's a philosophic fad of his," the priest went on smilingly, "and I have fallen in with it for the sake of a quiet life;so that when we do have company--that is to say, once in a blue moon--we display no manners to speak of""I had always supposed--that is, I've always heard--that it was more healthful to talk at meals," said Theron.
"Of course--what I mean--I took it for granted all physicians thought so."Dr.Ledsmar laughed."That depends so much upon the quality of the meals!" he remarked, holding his glass up to the light.
He seemed a man of middle age and an equable disposition.
Theron, stealing stray glances at him around the lampshade, saw most distinctly of all a broad, impressive dome of skull, which, though obviously the result of baldness, gave the effect of quite belonging to the face.
There were gold-rimmed spectacles, through which shone now and again the vivid sparkle of sharp, alert eyes, and there was a nose of some sort not easy to classify, at once long and thick.The rest was thin hair and short round beard, mouse-colored where the light caught them, but losing their outlines in the shadows of the background.
Theron had not heard of him among the physicians of Octavius.
He wondered if he might not be a doctor of something else than medicine, and decided upon venturing the question.
"Oh, yes, it is medicine," replied Ledsmar."I am a doctor three or four times over, so far as parchments can make one.
In some other respects, though, I should think I am probably less of a doctor than anybody else now living.
I haven't practised--that is, regularly--for many years, and I take no interest whatever in keeping abreast of what the profession regards as its progress.I know nothing beyond what was being taught in the sixties, and that I am glad to say I have mostly forgotten.""Dear me!" said Theron."I had always supposed that Science was the most engrossing of pursuits--that once a man took it up he never left it.""But that would imply a connection between Science and Medicine!" commented the doctor."My dear sir, they are not even on speaking terms.""Shall we go upstairs?" put in the priest, rising from his chair.