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"May I trouble you to sit down, princess?" the celebrated doctor

said to her.

He sat down with a smile, facing her, felt her pulse, and again

began asking her tiresome questions. She answered him, and all at

once got up, furious.

"Excuse me, doctor, but there is really no object in this. This

is the third time you've asked me the same thing."

The celebrated doctor did not take offense.

"Nervous irritability," he said to the princess, when Kitty had

left the room. "However, I had finished...."

And the doctor began scientifically explaining to the princess,

as an exceptionally intelligent woman, the condition of the young

princess, and concluded by insisting on the drinking of the

waters, which were certainly harmless. At the question: Should

they go abroad? the doctor plunged into deep meditation, as

though resolving a weighty problem. Finally his decision was

pronounced: they were to go abroad, but to put no faith in

foreign quacks, and to apply to him in any need.