CHAPTER IV
MRS. PATTERSON BECOMES QUIMBY'S PATIENT AND PUPIL—HER DEFENCE OF QUIMBY AND HIS THEORY—HER GRIEF AT HIS DEATH—SHE ASKS MR. DRESSER TO TAKE UP QUIMBY'S WORK
Upon reaching the hotel in Portland where Dr. Quimby had his offices, Mrs. Patterson was received by Julius A. Dresser and introduced to Dr. Quimby. George A. Quimby, Mrs. Julius A. Dresser, and the Hon. Edwin Reed all remember Mrs. Patterson's appearance at this time. She was so feeble that she had to be assisted up the stairs and into the waiting-room. She had lost the beauty of her earlier years. Her figure was emaciated, her face pale and worn, and her eyes were sunken. After the fashion of the time, her hair hung about her shoulders in loose ringlets, and her shabby dress suggested the hardness and poverty of her life. Yet Mrs. Patterson, as she was introduced to other patients sitting about the waiting-room, made something of an impression.
"Mrs. Patterson was presented to Dr. Quimby," says one of the patients who was present, "as 'the authoress,' and her manner was extremely polite and ingratiating. She wore a poke bonnet and an old-fashioned dress, but my impression was that her costume was intended to be a little odd, as in keeping with her 'literary' character. She seemed very weak, and we thought she was a consumptive."
56
