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The Woman Hater

C >> Charles Reade >> The Woman Hater




"The magic of a great word from a great heart, at certain moments when
minds are heated! At that word, sir, the scales fell from a hundred eyes;
manhood awoke with a start, ay, and chivalry too; fifty manly fellows
were round us in a moment, with glowing cheeks and eyes, and they carried
us all home to our several lodgings in triumph. The cowardly caitiffs of
the trades-union howled outside, and managed to throw a little dirt upon
our gowns, and also hurled epithets, most of which were new to me; but it
has since been stated by persons more versed in the language of the
_canaille_ that no fouler terms are known to the dregs of mankind.

"Thus did the immodest sex, in the person of the medical student, outrage
seven fair samples of the modest sex--to teach them modesty.

"Next morning the police magistrates dealt with a few of our teachers,
inflicted severe rebukes on them, and feeble fines.

"The craftier elders disowned the riot in public, but approved it in
private; and continued to act in concert with it, only with cunning, not
violence. _It caused no honest revulsion of feeling,_ except in the
disgusted public, and they had no power to help us.

"The next incident was a stormy debate by the subscribers to the
infirmary; and here we had a little feminine revenge, which, outraged as
we had been, I hope you will not grudge us.

"Our lioness subscribed five pounds, and became entitled to vote and
speech. As the foulest epithets had been hurled at her by the union, and
a certain professor had told her, to her face, no respectable woman would
come to him and propose to study medicine, she said, publicly, that she
had come to his opinion, and respectable women would avoid him--which
caused a laugh.

"She also gave a venerable old physician, our bitter opponent, a slap
that was not quite so fair. His attendant had been concerned in that
outrage, and she assumed--in which she was not justified-- that the old
doctor approved. 'To be sure,' said she, 'they say he was intoxicated,
and that is the only possible excuse.'

"The old doctor had only to say that he did not control his assistants in
the street; and his own mode of conducting the opposition, and his long
life of honor, were there to correct this young woman's unworthy
surmises, and she would have had to apologize for going too far on mere
surmise. But, instead of that, he was so injudicious as to accuse her of
foul language, and say, 'My attendant is a perfect gentleman; he would
not be my attendant if he were not.'

"Our lioness had him directly. 'Oh,' said she, 'if Dr. So-and-so prefers
to say that his attendant committed that outrage on decency when in his
sober senses, I am quite content.'

"This was described as violent invective by people with weak memories,
who had forgotten the nature of the outrage our lioness was commenting
on; but in truth it was only superior skill in debate, with truth to back
it.

"For my part, I kept the police report at the time, and have compared it
with her speech. The judicial comments on those rioters are far more
severe than hers. The truth is it was her facts that hit too hard, not
her expressions.

"Well, sir, she obtained a majority; and those managers of the infirmary
who objected to female students were dismissed, and others elected. At
the same meeting the Court of Contributors passed a statute, making it
the law of the infirmary that students should be admitted without regard
to sex.

"But as to the mere election of managers, the other party demanded a
scrutiny of the votes, and instructive figures came out. There voted with
us twenty-eight firms, thirty-one ladies, seven doctors.

"There voted with the union fourteen firms, two ladies, _thirty-seven
doctors,_ and three _druggists._

"Thereupon the trades-union, as declared by the figures, alleged that
firms ought not to vote. _Nota bene,_ they always had voted unchallenged
till they voted for fair play to women.

"The union served the provost with an interdict not to declare the new
managers elected.

"We applied for our tickets under the new statute, but were impudently
refused, under the plea that the managers must first be consulted: so did
the servants of the infirmary defy the masters in order to exclude us.

"By this time the great desire of women to practice medicine had begun to
show itself. Numbers came in and matriculated; and the pressure on the
authorities to keep faith, and relax the dead-lock they had put us in,
was great.

"Thereupon the authorities, instead of saying, 'We have pledged ourselves
to a great number of persons, and pocketed their fees,' took fright, and
cast about for juggles. They affected to discover all of a sudden that
they had acted illegally in matriculating female students. They would,
therefore, not give back their fees, and pay them two hundred pounds
apiece for breach of contract, but detain their fees and stop their
studies until compelled by judicial decision to keep faith. Observe, it
was under advice of the lord-justice-general they had matriculated us,
and entered into a contract with us, _for fulfilling which it was not,
and is not, in the power of any mortal man to punish them._

"But these pettifoggers said this: _'We_ have acted illegally, and
therefore not we, but _you,_ shall suffer: _we_ will _profit_ by our
illegal act, for we will cheat you out of your fees to the university and
your fees to its professors, as well as the seed-time of your youth that
we have wasted.'

"Now, in that country they can get the opinions of the judges by raising
what they call an action of declarator.

"One would think it was their business to go to the judges, and meantime
give us the benefit of the legal doubt, while it lasted, and of the moral
no-doubt, which will last till the day of judgment, and a day after.

"Not a bit of it. They deliberately broke their contract with us, kept
our fees, and cheated us out of the article we had bought of them,
disowned all sense of morality, yet shifted the burden of law on to our
shoulders. Litigation is long. Perfidy was in possession. Possession is
nine points. The female students are now sitting with their hands before
them, juggled out of their studies, in plain defiance of justice and
public faith, waiting till time shall show them whether provincial
lawyers can pettifog as well as trades-union doctors.

"As for me, I had retired to civilized climes long before this. I used to
write twice a week to my parents, but I withheld all mention of the
outrage at Surgeons' Hall. I knew it would give them useless pain. But in
three weeks or so came a letter from my father, unlike any other I ever
knew him to write. It did not even begin, 'My dear child.' This was what
he said (the words are engraved in my memory): 'Out of that nation of
cowards and skunks! out of it this moment, once and forever! The States
are your home. Draft on London inclosed. Write to me from France next
week, or write to me no more. Graduate in France. Then come North, and
sail from Havre to New York. You have done with Britain, and so have I,
till our next war. Pray God that mayn't be long!'

"It was like a lion's roar of anguish. I saw my dear father's heart was
bursting with agony and rage at the insult to his daughter, and I shed
tears for him those wretches had never drawn from me.

"I had cried at being insulted by scholars in the Press; but what was it
to me that the scum of the medical profession, which is the scum of God's
whole creation, called me words I did not know the meaning of, and flung
the dirt of their streets, and the filth of their souls, after me? I was
frightened a little, that is all. But that these reptiles could wound my
darling old lion's heart across the ocean! Sir, he was a man who could be
keen and even severe with men, but every virtuous woman was a sacred
thing to him. Had he seen one, though a stranger, insulted as we were, he
would have died in her defense. He was a true American. And to think the
dregs of mankind could wound him for his daughter, and so near the end of
his own dear life. Oh!" She turned her head away.

"My poor girl!" said Vizard, and his own voice was broken.

When he said that, she gave him her hand, and seemed to cling to his a
little; but she turned her head away from him and cried, and even
trembled a little.

But she very soon recovered herself, and said she would try to end her
story. It had been long enough.

"Sir, my father had often obeyed me; but now I knew I must obey him. I
got testimonials in Edinburgh, and started South directly. In a week I
was in the South of France. Oh, what a change in people's minds by mere
change of place! The professors received me with winning courtesy; some
hats were lifted to me in the street, with marked respect; flowers were
sent to my lodgings by gentlemen who never once intruded, on me in
person. I was in a civilized land. Yet there was a disappointment for me.
I inquired for Cornelia. The wretch had just gone and married a
professor. I feared she was up to no good, by her writing so seldom of
late.

"I sent her a line that an old friend had returned, and had not forgotten
her, nor our mutual vows.

"She came directly, and was for caressing away her crime, and dissolving
it in crocodile tears; but I played the injured friend and the tyrant.

"Then she curled round me, and coaxed, and said, 'Sweetheart, I can
advance your interests all the better. You shall be famous for us both. I
shall be happier in your success than in my own.'

"In short, she made it very hard to hold spite; and it ended in
feeble-minded embraces. Indeed, she _was_ of service to me. I had a favor
to ask: I wanted leave to count my Scotch time in France.

"My view was tenable; and Cornelia, by her beauty and her popularity,
gained over all the professors to it but one. He stood out.

"Well, sir, an extraordinary occurrence befriended me; no, not
extraordinary-- unusual.

"I lodged on a second floor. The first floor was very handsome. A young
Englishman and his wife took it for a week. She was musical--a real
genius. The only woman I ever heard sing without whining; for we are, by
nature, the medical and unmusical sex."

"So you said before."

"I know I did; and I mean to keep saying it till people see it. Well, the
young man was taken violently and mysteriously ill; had syncope after
syncope, and at last ceased to breathe.

"The wife was paralyzed, and sat stupefied, and the people about feared
for her reason.

"After a time they begged me to come down and talk to her. Of course I
went. I found her with her head upon his knees. I sat down quietly, and
looked at him. He was young and beautiful, but with a feminine beauty;
his head finely shaped, with curly locks that glittered in the sun, and
one golden lock lighter than the rest; his eyes and eyelashes, his oval
face, his white neck, and his white hand, all beautiful. His left hand
rested on the counterpane. There was an emerald ring on one finger. He
was like some beautiful flower cut down. I can see him now.

"The woman lifted her head and saw me. She had a noble face, though now
distorted and wild.

"She cried, 'Tell me he is not dead! tell me he is not dead!' and when I
did not reply, the poor creature gave a wild cry, and her senses left
her. We carried her into another room.

"While the women were bringing her to, an official came to insist on the
interment taking place. They are terribly expeditious in the South of
France.

"This caused an altercation, and the poor lady rushed out; and finding
the officer peremptory, flung her arms round the body, and said they
should not be parted--she would be buried with him.

"The official was moved, but said the law was strict, and the town must
conduct the funeral unless she could find the sad courage to give the
necessary instructions. With this he was going out, inexorable, when all
of a sudden I observed something that sent my heart into my mouth, and I
cried 'Arretez!' so loud that everybody stared.

"I said, 'You must wait till a physician has seen him; he has moved a
finger.'

"I stared at the body, and they all stared at me.

"He _had_ moved a finger. When I first saw him, his fingers were all
close together; but now the little finger was quite away from the third
finger--the one with the ring on.

"I felt his heart, and found a little warmth about it, but no perceptible
pulse. I ordered them to take off his sheet and put on blankets, but not
to touch him till I came back with a learned physician. The wife embraced
me, all trembling, and promised obedience. I got a _fiacre_ and drove to
Dr. Brasseur, who was my hostile professor, but very able. I burst on
him, and told him I had a case of catalepsy for him--it wasn't catalepsy,
you know, but physicians are fond of Greek; they prefer the wrong Greek
word to the right English. So I called it 'catalepsy,' and said I
believed they were going to bury a live man. He shrugged his shoulders,
and said that was one of the customs of the country. He would come in an
hour. I told him that would not do, the man would be in his coffin; he
must come directly. He smiled at my impetuosity, and yielded.

"I got him to the patient. He examined him, and said he might be alive,
but feared the last spark was going out. He dared not venture on
friction. We must be wary.

"Well, we tried this stimulant and that, till at last we got a sigh out
of the patient; and I shall not forget the scream of joy at that sigh,
which made the room ring, and thrilled us all.

"By-and-by I was so fortunate as to suggest letting a small stream of
water fall from a height on his head and face. We managed that, and
by-and-by were rewarded with a sneeze.

"I think a sneeze must revivify the brain wonderfully, for he made rapid
progress, and then we tried friction, and he got well very quick. Indeed,
as he had nothing the matter with him, except being dead, he got
ridiculously well, and began paying us fulsome compliments, the doctor
and me.

"So then we handed him to his joyful wife.

"They talk of crying for joy, as if it was done every day. I never saw it
but once, and she was the woman. She made a curious gurgle; but it was
very pretty. I was glad to have seen it, and very proud to be the cause.

The next day that pair left. He was English and so many good-natured
strangers called on him that he fled swiftly, and did not even bid me
good-by. However, I was told they both inquired for me, and were sorry I
was out when they went."

"How good of them!" said Vizard, turning red.

"Oh, never mind, sir; I made use of _him._ I scribbled an article that
very day, entitled it, 'While there's life there's hope,' and rushed with
it to the editor of a journal. He took it with delight. I wrote it _'a la
Francaise:_ picture of the dead husband, mourning wife, the impending
interment; effaced myself entirely, and said the wife had refused to bury
him until Dr. Brasseur, whose fame had reached her ears, had seen the
body. To humor her, the doctor was applied to, and, his benevolence being
equal to his science, he came: when, lo! a sudden surprise; the swift,
unerring eye of science detected some subtle sign that had escaped the
lesser luminaries. He doubted the death. He applied remedies; he
exhausted the means of his art, with little avail at first, but at last a
sigh was elicited, then a sneeze; and, marvelous to relate, in one hour
the dead man was sitting up, not convalescent, but well. I concluded with
some reflections on this _most important case of suspended animation_
very creditable to the profession of medicine, and Dr. Brasseur."

"There was a fox!"

"Well, look at my hair. What else could you expect? I said that before,
too.

"My notice published, I sent it to the doctor, with my respects, but did
not call on him. However, one day he met me, and greeted me with a low
bow. 'Mademoiselle,' said he, 'you were always a good student; but now
you show the spirit of a _confr'ere,_ and so gracefully, that we are all
agreed we must have you for one as soon as possible.'

"I courtesied, and felt my face red, and said I should be the proudest
woman in France.

"'Grand Dieu,' said he, 'I hope not; for your modesty is not the least of
your charms.'

"So, the way was made smooth, and I had to work hard, and in about
fourteen months I was admitted to my final examination. It was a severe
one, but I had some advantages. Each nation has its wisdom, and I had
studied in various schools.

"Being a linguist, with a trained memory, I occasionally backed my
replies with a string of French, German, English, and Italian authorities
that looked imposing.

"In short, I did pass with public applause and cordial felicitation; they
quite _fe'ted_ me. The old welcomed me; the young escorted me home and
flung flowers over me at my door. I reappeared in the balcony, and said a
few words of gratitude to them and their noble nation. They cheered, and
dispersed.

"My heart was in a glow. I turned my eyes toward New York: a fortnight
more, and my parents should greet me as a European doctress, if not a
British.

"The excitement had been too great; I sunk, a little exhausted, on the
sofa. They bought me a letter. It was black-edged. I tore it open with a
scream. My father was dead."



CHAPTER XIV.

"I WAS prostrated, stupefied. I don't know what I did, or how long I sat
there. But Cornelia came to congratulate me, and found me there like
stone, with the letter in my hand. She packed up my clothes, and took me
home with her. I made no resistance. I seemed all broken and limp, soul
and body, and not a tear that day.

"Oh, sir, how small everything seems beside bereavement! My troubles, my
insults, were nothing now; my triumph nothing; for I had no father left
to be proud of it with me.

"I wept with anguish a hundred times a day. Why had I left New York? Why
had I not foreseen this every-day calamity, and passed every precious
hour by his side I was to lose?

"Terror seized me. My mother would go next. No life of any value was safe
a day. Death did not wait for disease. It killed because it chose, and to
show its contempt of hearts.

"But just as I was preparing to go to Havre, they brought me a telegram.
I screamed at it, and put up my hands. I said 'No, no;' I would not read
it, to be told my mother was dead. I would have her a few minutes longer.
Cornelia read it, and said it was from her. I fell on it, and kissed it.
The blessed telegram told she was coming home. I was to go to London and
wait for her.

"I started. Cornelia paid my fees, and put my diploma in my box. _I_
cared for nothing now but my own flesh and blood--what was left of it--my
mother.

"I reached London, and telegraphed my address to my mother, and begged
her to come at once and ease my fears. I told her my funds were
exhausted; but, of course, that was not the thing I poured out my heart
about; so I dare say she hardly realized my deplorable
condition--listless and bereaved, alone in a great city, with no money.

"In her next letter she begged me to be patient. She had trouble with her
husband's executors; she would send me a draft as soon as she could; but
she would not leave, and let her child be robbed.

"By-and-by the landlady pressed me for money. I gave her my gowns and
shawls to sell for me."

"Goose!"

"And just now I was a fox."

"You are both. But so is every woman."

"She handed me a few shillings, by way of balance. I lived on them till
they went. Then I starved a little."

"With a ring on your finger you could have pawned for ten guineas!"

"Pawn my ring! My father gave it me." She kissed it tenderly, yet, to
Vizard, half defiantly.

"Pawning is not selling, goose!" said he, getting angry.

"But I must have parted with it."

"And you preferred to _starve?"_

"I preferred to starve," said she, steadily.

He looked at her. Her eyes faced his. He muttered something, and walked
away, three steps to hide unreasonable sympathy. He came back with a
grand display of cheerfulness. "Your mother will be here next month,"
said he, "with money in both pockets. Meantime I wish you would let me
have a finger in the pie--or, rather my sister. She is warm-hearted and
enthusiastic; she shall call on you, if you will permit it."

"Is she like you?"

"Not a bit. We are by different mothers. Hers was a Greek, and she is a
beautiful, dark girl."

"I admire beauty; but is she like you-- in--in--disposition?"

"Lord! no; very superior. Not abominably clever like you, but absurdly
good. You shall judge for yourself. Oblige me with your address."

The doctress wrote her address with a resigned air, as one who had found
somebody she had to obey; and, as soon as he had got it, Vizard gave her
a sort of nervous shake of the hand, and seemed almost in a hurry to get
away from her. But this was his way.

She would have been amazed if she had seen his change of manner the
moment he got among his own people.

He burst in on them, crying, "There--the prayers of this congregation are
requested for Harrington Vizard, saddled with a virago."

"Saddled with a virago!" screamed Fanny.

"Saddled with a--!" sighed Zoe, faintly.

"Saddled with a virago FOR LIFE!" shouted Vizard, with a loud defiance
that seemed needless, since nobody was objecting violently to his being
saddled.

"Look here!" said he, descending all of a sudden to a meek, injured air,
which, however, did not last very long, "I was in the garden of Leicester
Square, and a young lady turned faint. I observed it, and, instead of
taking the hint and cutting, I offered assistance--off my guard, as
usual. She declined. I persisted; proposed a glass of wine, or spirit.
She declined, but at last let out she was starving."

"Oh!" cried Zoe.

"Yes, Zoe--starving. A woman more learned, more scientific, more
eloquent, more offensive to a fellow's vanity, than I ever saw, or even
read of--a woman of _genius,_ starving, like a genius and a ninny, with a
ring on her finger worth thirty guineas. But my learned goose would not
raise money on that, because it was her father's, and he is dead."

"Poor thing!" said Zoe, and her eyes glistened directly.

"It _is_ hard, Zoe, isn't it? She is a physician--an able physician; has
studied at Zurich and at Edinburgh, and in France, and has a French
diploma; but must not practice in England, because we are behind the
Continent in laws and civilization--so _she_ says, confound her
impudence, and my folly for becoming a woman's echo! But if I were to
tell you her whole story, your blood would boil at the trickery, and
dishonesty, and oppression of the trades-union which has driven this
gifted creature to a foreign school for education; and, now that a
foreign nation admits her ability and crowns her with honor, still she
must not practice in this country, because she is a woman, and we are a
nation of half-civilized men. That is _her_ chat, you understand, not
mine. We are not obliged to swallow all that; but, turn it how you will,
here are learning, genius, and virtue starving. We must get her to accept
a little money; that means, in her case, a little fire and food. Zoe,
shall that woman go to bed hungry to-night?"

"No, never!" said Zoe, warmly. "'Let me think. Offer her a _loan."_

"Well done; that is a good idea. Will _you_ undertake it? She will be far
more likely to accept. She is a bit of a prude and all, is my virago."

"Yes, dear, she will. Order the carriage. She shall not go to bed
hungry-- nobody shall that you are interested in."

"Oh, after dinner will do."

Dinner was ordered immediately, and the brougham an hour after.

At dinner, Vizard gave them all the outline of the Edinburgh struggle,
and the pros and cons; during which narrative his female hearers might
have been observed to get cooler and cooler, till they reached the zero
of perfect apathy. They listened in dead silence; but when Harrington had
done, Fanny said aside to Zoe, "It is all her own fault. What business
have women to set up for doctors?"

"Of course not," said Zoe; "only we must not say so. He indulges _us_ in
our whims."

Warm partisan of immortal justice, when it was lucky enough to be backed
by her affections, Miss Vizard rose directly after dinner, and, with a
fine imitation of ardor, said she could lose no more time--she must go
and put on her bonnet. "You will come with me, Fanny?"

When I was a girl, or a boy--I forget which, it is so long ago--a young
lady thus invited by an affectionate friend used to do one of two things;
nine times out of ten she sacrificed her inclination, and went; the
tenth, she would make sweet, engaging excuses, and beg off. But the girls
of this day have invented "silent volition." When you ask them to do
anything they don't quite like, they look you in the face, bland but
full, and neither speak nor move. Miss Dover was a proficient in this
graceful form of refusal by dead silence, and resistance by placid
inertia. She just looked like the full moon in Zoe's face, and never
budged. Zoe, being also a girl of the day, needed no interpretation. "Oh,
very well," said she, "disobliging thing!"--with perfect good humor, mind
you.

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