If the patient was a man I should fear the most
serious results; but here we have to take into account the patient's
sex, her nature, and her present condition. Lady Bassett has always
appeared to me a very remarkable woman. She has no mediocrity in
anything; understanding keen, perception wonderfully swift, heart large
and sensitive, nerves high strung, sensibilities acute. A person of her
sex, tuned so high as this, is always subject, more or less, to
hysteria. It is controlled by her intelligence and spirit; but she is
now, for the time being, in a physical condition that has often
deranged less sensitive women than she is. I believe this about the boy
to be a hysterical delusion, which will pass away when her next child
is born. That is to say, she will probably ignore her first-born, and
everything else, for a time; but these caprices, springing in reality
from the body rather than the mind, cannot endure forever. When she has
several grown-up children the first-born will be the favorite. It comes
to that at last, my good friend."
"These are the words of wisdom," said Sir Charles; "God bless you for
them!"
After a while he said, "Then what you advise is simply--patience?"
"No, I don't say that. With such a large house as this, and your
resources, you might easily separate them before the delusion grows any
farther.
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