The Doctor in Mourning

Day 84

The snow has finally melted and the city returns to normal. I am pleased to see the remaining clumps of gray snow fade from view. I find that the dirty snow has such a melancholy effect on me. The printer's shop was open'd Friday last and I was able to get my pages printed in time for my talk last Sunday.

My lecture was met with GREAT success! There were over fifty in attendance and all seemed very genuinely interested in the subject matter. I demonstrated many of the tools used in the treatment of Pleurisy, namely, the tools for phlebotomy, the clyster and blistering irons among others.

Afterword, I was given tea and cakes and a fine tour of the facility before I pocketed my honorarium and returned home to the Gamble house in Grosvenor Street.

Today will be spent in packing my trunk and preparing for departure. Gamble insists that he be allowed to accompany me to Portsmouth in his carriage. He refuses to allow me to travel on the Mail Coach again.

I shall depart upon the morrow, and should reach Portsmouth in a day or so. I find that my thoughts have begun to turn homeward, to the green hills near Soldier's Rest and all that I have left behind. I miss my home and my children... and the distinct scent of Rose water that laces the letters from a certain young lady.