Another complete contrast to Diogenes was Dr. Conway, of Virginia, our
_Chesterfield_. His perfect manners and courtly observance of the
smallest requirements of good breeding and etiquette made us feel
quite as if we were lord and ladies. Dr. Conway had a way of conveying
subtle indefinable flattery which was very elevating to one's
self-esteem. Others enjoyed it in full, but often, just as our
Chesterfield had interviewed _me_, infusing even into the homely
subject of diet-lists much that was calculated to puff up my vanity,
in would stalk Diogenes, who never failed to bring me to a realizing
sense of the hollowness of it all. Dr. Hughes was a venerable and
excellent gentleman, who constituted himself my mentor. He never
failed to drop in every day, being always ready to smooth tangled
threads for me. He was forever protesting against the habit I had
contracted in Richmond, and never afterwards relinquished, of
remaining late by the bedside of dying patients, or going to the wards
whenever summoned at night. He would say, "Daughter, it is not right,
it is not safe; not only do you risk contagion by breathing the foul
air of the wards at night, but some of these soldiers are mighty rough
and might not always justify your confidence in them.
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