WIPED THEM ALL OFF.

Waikato Argus, Volume VII, Issue 506, 28 October 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

WIPED THEM ALL OFF.

I don't know much of the ways of fashionable, people (said a young physician to the writer not long ago) for lam not in society ; but if many s >oiety women aro like oiip I once had to deal with, I. think I'm safer to be out of it. Let me tell you of the incident.

I had among my patients an elderly woman who resides with her daughter's family. Tho daughtor lived •fully up to her means, went out a groat deal, and entertained on an exteusivo scale.

The mother fell ill with a complaint which I knew would prove fatal. I did not inform the family until one day the daughter asked me to tell her frankly what her mother's condition was, and just how long she would live. I to?d her that the old lady could not possibly last more than a fortnight. She begged me not to let anyone know how serious the case wiis. Sho didn't want her young daughters distressed, sho said. Of course, I told nobody, and just a week after that I read in the papers that Mrs Dash (the daughter of the dying patient) had sent out iivitntions for a lirge dancing party, to be given a fortnight later. My patient did not live S 3 long ns I had expected. The day after she died I read in the papers that " owing to the death of her mother, Mrs Dtib. bad been compelled to cancel her invitations." Mrs Dash owed many social dehts, and she wiped off all her obligations by those recalled invitations. She hod never for a moment intended to give a ball. She could-not have afforded it, and it was nothing but a huge " bluff." I have cold shivers every time I see her.