The Doctor's Sweetheart Page #2

"The Doctor's Sweetheart" by Lucy Maud Montgomery is a poignant short story that explores themes of love, sacrifice, and the complexities of relationships. Set in a small, picturesque community, the narrative centers around a young woman named Christina who is deeply in love with a local doctor. As she grapples with her feelings and the demands of her affections, the story delves into the challenges of unrequited love and the bittersweet nature of romantic longing. Through Montgomery's characteristic lyrical prose, readers are invited to reflect on the intricacies of the human heart and the choices we make for love.

• Short story

								

matter squarely in the face. First of all, he put away to one side all
that the world might say; the thing concerned solely him and Marcella,
and the world had nothing to do with it. That disposed of, he asked
himself soberly if he had a right to try to win Marcella's love. He
decided that he had not; it would be taking an unfair advantage of her
youth and inexperience. He knew that she must soon go to her father's
people--she must not go bound by any ties of his making. Doctor John,
for Marcella's sake, gave the decision against his own heart.

So much did Doctor John tell me, his old friend and confidant. I said
nothing and gave no advice, not having lived seventy-five years for
nothing. I knew that Doctor John's decision was manly and right and
fair; but I also knew it was all nullified by the fact that Marcella
already loved him.

So much I knew; the rest I was left to suppose. The Doctor and
Marcella told me much, but there were some things too sacred to be
told, even to me. So that to this day I don't know how the doctor
found out that Marcella loved him. All I know is that one day, just a
month before her sixteenth birthday, the two came hand in hand to Miss
Sara and me, as we sat on Miss Sara's veranda in the twilight, and
told us simply that they had plighted their troth to each other.

I looked at them standing there with that wonderful sunrise of life
and love on their faces--the doctor, tall and serious, with a sprinkle
of silver in his brown hair and the smile of a happy man on his
lips--Marcella, such a slip of a girl, with her black hair in a long
braid and her lovely face all dewed over with tears and sunned over
with smiles--I, an old woman, looked at them and thanked the good God
for them and their delight.

Miss Sara laughed and cried and kissed--and forboded what the Barrys
would do. Her forebodings proved only too true. When the doctor wrote
to Richard Barry, Marcella's guardian, asking his consent to their
engagement, Richard Barry promptly made trouble--the very worst kind
of trouble. He descended on Bridgeport and completely overwhelmed poor
Miss Sara in his wrath. He laughed at the idea of countenancing an
engagement between a child like Marcella and an obscure country
doctor. And he carried Marcella off with him!

She had to go, of course. He was her legal guardian and he would
listen to no pleadings. He didn't know anything about Marcella's
character, and he thought that a new life out in the great world would
soon blot out her fancy.

After the first outburst of tears and prayers Marcella took it very
calmly, as far as outward eye could see. She was as cool and dignified
and stately as a young queen. On the night before she went away she
came over to say good-bye to me. She did not even shed any tears, but
the look in her eyes told of bitter hurt. "It is goodbye for five
years, Miss Tranquil," she said steadily. "When I am twenty-one I will
come back. That is the only promise I can make. They will not let me
write to John or Aunt Sara and I will do nothing underhanded. But I
will not forget and I will come back."

Richard Barry would not even let her see Doctor John alone again. She
had to bid him good-bye beneath the cold, contemptuous eyes of the man
of the world. So there was just a hand-clasp and one long deep look
between them that was tenderer than any kiss and more eloquent than
any words.

"I will come back when I am twenty-one," said Marcella. And I saw
Richard Barry smile.

So Marcella went away and in all Bridgeport there were only two people
who believed she would ever return. There is no keeping a secret in
Bridgeport, and everybody knew all about the love affair between
Marcella and the doctor and about the promise she had made. Everybody
sympathized with the doctor because everybody believed he had lost his
sweetheart.

"For of course she'll never come back," said Mrs. Riddell to me.
"She's only a child and she'll soon forget him. She's to be sent to
school and taken abroad and between times she'll live with the Richard
Barrys; and they move, as everyone knows, in the very highest and
gayest circles. I'm sorry for the doctor, though. A man of his age
doesn't get over a thing like that in a hurry and he was perfectly
silly over Marcella. But it really serves him right for falling in
love with a child."

There are times when Martha Riddell gets on my nerves. She's a
good-hearted woman, and she means well; but she rasps--rasps terribly.

Even Miss Sara exasperated me. But then she had her excuse. The child
she loved as her own had been torn from her and it almost broke her
heart. But even so, I thought she ought to have had a little more
faith in Marcella.

"Oh, no, she'll never come back," sobbed Miss Sara. "Yes, I know she
promised. But they'll wean her away from me. She'll have such a gay,
splendid life she'll not want to come back. Five years is a lifetime
at her age. No, don't try to comfort me, Miss Tranquil, because I
won't be comforted!"

When a person has made up her mind to be miserable you just have to
let her be miserable.

I almost dreaded to see Doctor John for fear he would be in despair,
too, without any confidence in Marcella. But when he came I saw I
needn't have worried. The light had all gone out of his eyes, but
there was a calm, steady patience in them.

"She will come back to me, Miss Tranquil," he said. "I know what
people are saying, but that does not trouble me. They do not know
Marcella as I do. She promised and she will keep her word--keep it
joyously and gladly, too. If I did not know that I would not wish its
fulfilment. When she is free she will turn her back on that brilliant
world and all it offers her and come back to me. My part is to wait
and believe."

So Doctor John waited and believed. After a little while the
excitement died away and people forgot Marcella. We never heard from
or about her, except a paragraph now and then in the society columns
of the city paper the doctor took. We knew she was sent to school for
three years; then the Barrys took her abroad. She was presented at
court. When the doctor read this--he was with me at the time--he put
his hand over his eyes and sat very silent for a long time. I wondered
if at last some momentary doubt had crept into his mind--if he did not
fear that Marcella must have forgotten him. The paper told of her
triumph and her beauty and hinted at a titled match. Was it probable
or even possible that she would be faithful to him after all this?

The doctor must have guessed my thoughts, for at last he looked up
with a smile.

"She will come back," was all he said. But I saw that the doubt, if
doubt it were, had gone. I watched him as he went away, that tall,
gentle, kindly-eyed man, and I prayed that his trust might not be
misplaced; for if it should be it would break his heart.

Five years seems a long time in looking forward. But they pass
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