Red Peppers Patients

Red Pepper's Patients, by Grace
S. Richmond

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Red Pepper's Patients, by Grace S.
Richmond
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Red Pepper's Patients With an Account of Anne Linton's Case in
Particular
Author: Grace S. Richmond

Release Date: June 23, 2005 [eBook #16115]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RED
PEPPER'S PATIENTS***
E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Irma Spehar, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)

RED PEPPER'S PATIENTS
With an Account of Anne Linton's Case in Particular
by
GRACE S. RICHMOND
Garden City New York Doubleday, Page & Company
1918

[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE]

[Illustration: "Red Pepper" Burns, M.D.]

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION
II. LITTLE HUNGARY
III. ANNE LINTON'S TEMPERATURE
IV. TWO RED HEADS
V. SUSQUEHANNA
VI. HEAVY LOCAL MAILS

VII. WHITE LILACS
VIII. EXPERT DIAGNOSIS
IX. JORDAN IS A MAN
X. THE SURGICAL FIRING LINE
XI. THE ONLY SAFE PLACE
XII. THE TRUTH ABOUT SUSQUEHANNA
XIII. RED HEADED AGAIN
XIV. A STRANGE DAY
XV. CLEARED DECKS
XVI. WHITE LILACS AGAIN
XVII. RED'S DEAREST PATIENTS
CHAPTER I
AN INTELLIGENT PRESCRIPTION
The man in the silk-lined, London-made overcoat, holding his hat
firmly on his head lest the January wind send its expensive perfection
into the gutter, paused to ask his way of the man with no overcoat, his
hands shoved into his ragged pockets, his shapeless headgear crowded
down over his eyes, red and bleary with the piercing wind.
"Burns?" repeated the second man to the question of the first. "Doc
Burns? Sure! Next house beyond the corner--the brick one." He turned
to point. "Tell it by the rigs hitched. It's his office hours. You'll do some
waitin', tell ye that."
The questioner smiled--a slightly superior smile. "Thank you," he said,
and passed on. He arrived at the corner and paused briefly, considering

the row of vehicles in front of the old, low-lying brick house with its
comfortable, white-pillared porches. The row was indeed a formidable
one and suggested many waiting people within the house. But after an
instant's hesitation he turned up the gravel path toward the wing of the
house upon whose door could be seen the lettering of an inconspicuous
sign. As he came near he made out that the sign read "R.P. Burns,
M.D.," and that the table of office hours below set forth that the present
hour was one of those designated.
"I'll get a line on your practice, Red," said the stranger to himself, and
laid hand upon the doorbell. "Incidentally, perhaps, I'll get a line on
why you stick to a small suburban town like this when you might be in
the thick of things. A fellow whom I've twice met in Vienna, too. I can't
understand it."
A fair-haired young woman in a white uniform and cap admitted the
newcomer and pointed him to the one chair left unoccupied in the large
and crowded waiting-room. It was a pleasant room, in a well-worn sort
of way, and the blazing wood fire in a sturdy fireplace, the rows of
dull-toned books cramming a solid phalanx of bookcases, and a number
of interesting old prints on the walls gave it, as the stranger, lifting
critical eyes, was obliged to admit to himself, a curious air of dignity in
spite of the mingled atmosphere of drugs and patients which assailed
his fastidious nostrils. As for the patients themselves, since they were
all about him, he could hardly do less than observe them, although he
helped himself to a late magazine from a well-filled table at his side
and mechanically turned its pages.
The first to claim his attention was a little girl at his elbow. She could
hardly fail to catch his eye, she was so conspicuous with bandages. One
eye, one cheek, the whole of her neck, and both her hands were
swathed in white, but the other cheek was rosy, and the uncovered eye
twinkled bravely as she smiled at the stranger. "I was burned," she said
proudly.
"I see," returned the stranger, speaking very low, for he was conscious
that the entire roomful of people was listening. "And you are getting
better?"

"Oh, yes!" exulted the child. "Doctor's making me have new skin. He
gets me more new skin every day. I didn't have any at all. It was all
burned off."
"That's very good of him," murmured the stranger.
"He's awful good," said the child, "when he isn't cross. He isn't ever
cross to me, Doctor isn't."
There was a general murmur of amusement in the room, and