The wonder is, not
that you did not live more comfortably, but that you were able to live together
at all, who were all confessedly bent on making one another your servants, and
securing possession of one another's goods.«
    »There, there, father, if yon are so vehement, Mr. West will think you are
scolding him,« laughingly interposed Edith.
    »When you want a doctor,« I asked, »do you simply apply to the proper bureau
and take any one that may be sent?«
    »That rule would not work well in the case of physicians,« replied Dr.
Leete. »The good a physician can do a patient depends largely on his
acquaintance with his constitutional tendencies and condition. The patient must
be able, therefore, to call in a particular doctor, and he does so just as
patients did in your day. The only difference is that, instead of collecting his
fee for himself, the doctor collects it for the nation by pricking off the
amount, according to a regular scale for medical attendance, from the patient's
credit card.«
    »I can imagine,« I said, »that if the fee is always the same, and a doctor
may not turn away patients, as I suppose he may not, the good doctors are called
constantly and the poor doctors left in idleness.«
    »In the first place, if you will overlook the apparent conceit of the remark
from a retired physician,« replied Dr. Leete, with a smile, »we have no poor
doctors. Anybody who pleases to get a little smattering of medical terms is not
now at liberty to practice on the bodies of citizens, as in your day. None but
students who have passed the severe tests of the schools, and clearly proved
their vocation, are permitted to practice. Then, too, you will observe that
there is nowadays no attempt of doctors to build up their practice at the
expense of other doctors. There would be no motive for that. For the rest, the
doctor has to render regular reports of his work to the medical bureau, and if
he is not reasonably well employed, work is found for him.«
 

                                  Chapter XII

The questions which I needed to ask before I could acquire even an outline
acquaintance with the institutions of the twentieth century being endless, and
Dr. Leete's good-nature appearing equally so, we sat up talking for several
hours after the ladies left us. Reminding my host of the point at which our talk
had broken off that morning, I expressed my