Dr Thorne, so counselled, at such a moment,—­so informed then, when he most required comfort from his love, at once swore loudly that he agreed with her.  He rushed forth with a bursting heart, and said to himself that the world was bad, all bad.  He saw the lady no more; and, if I am rightly informed, never again made matrimonial overtures to any one.

CHAPTER III

DR THORNE

And thus Dr Thorne became settled for life in the little village of Greshamsbury.  As was then the wont with many country practitioners, and as should be the wont with them all if they consulted their own dignity a little less and the comforts of their customers somewhat more, he added the business of a dispensing apothecary to that of a physician.  In doing so, he was of course much reviled.  Many people around him declared that he could not truly be a doctor, or, at any rate, a doctor to be so called; and his brethren in the art living round him, though they knew that his diplomas, degrees, and certificates were all en regle, rather countenanced the report.  There was much about this new-comer which did not endear him to his own profession.  In the first place he was a new-comer, and, as such, was of course to be regarded by other doctors as being de trop.  Greshamsbury was only fifteen miles from Barchester, where there was a regular depot of medical skill, and but eight from Silverbridge, where a properly established physician had been in residence for the last forty years.  Dr Thorne’s predecessor at Greshamsbury had been a humble-minded general practitioner, gifted with a due respect for the physicians of the county; and he, though he had been allowed to physic the servants, and sometimes the children of Greshamsbury, had never had the presumption to put himself on a par with his betters.

Then also, Dr Thorne, though a graduated physician, though entitled beyond all dispute to call himself a doctor, according to all the laws of the colleges, made it known to the East Barsetshire world, very soon after he had seated himself at Greshamsbury, that his rate of pay was to be seven-and-sixpence a visit within a circuit of five miles, with a proportionally increased charge at proportionally increased distances.  Now there was something low, mean, unprofessional, and democratic in this; so, at least, said the children of AEsculapius gathered together in conclave at Barchester.  In the first place, it showed that this Thorne was always thinking of his money, like an apothecary, as he was; whereas, it would have behoved him, as a physician, had he had the feelings of a physician under his hat, to have regarded his own pursuits in a purely philosophical spirit, and to have taken any gain which might have accrued as an accidental adjunct to his station in life.  A physician should take his fee without letting his left hand know what his right hand was doing; it should be taken without a thought, without