Doctor Garnier had finished sounding his patient, and was preparing to set off again from the hospital. It was a busy time, and his list of visits had lengthened, particularly on this gray wintry day.
An anxious expression in Patrick’s eyes caused him to sit down again. It seemed that Patrick needed something other than medicine now that his pneumonia was checked, and his youthful vigor had triumphed over his sickness.
“Well, Patrick! You have something to say to me; I read it in your eyes.”
“I would like to thank you for being so good to me,” faltered Patrick, flushing painfully. “You are John’s father. I’ve done everything to make your son detest me, and you should detest me too!”
“John feels no ill-will towards you. Already he has asked me when he can pay you a visit, but I prefer that you should choose the day. Besides, the Lord Jesus teaches us to forgive one another because He forgives us.”
Patrick was silent. At last he said in a strangled voice, “I can’t forgive myself.”
“I learned how to forgive when I understood all that the Lord had forgiven me,” said the doctor. “All the sins I have committed, contributed, with those of all men, to force the thorns into His head, the nails into His hands. When we realize this, it makes us very humble.”
Another question was torturing Patrick, but he dared not frame it. It was the doctor who asked him point blank.
“You want to know where your chums are, don’t you? Andrew and Charlie had fractured skulls, with concussion. They are getting better, and perhaps you’ll be able to see them after a few days. Cyril Danton and Bob Round are in a Borstal School. As for Simon Conty, his parents have sent him to a boarding school in Germany.”
“And me?” asked Patrick; “where will they send me?”
“You will stay two months more in the hospital, sonny. Your leg was broken in three places, and is far from right. After that, you can go home. Naturally, you will have to pay your share of the fine. You deserve that, don’t you?”
“Yes,” said Patrick sadly.
“Why did you get mixed up with such bad companions?”
Patrick said nothing. How could he tell the doctor the real cause? At last he murmured: “I wanted to do something exciting. I was upset about the house and my dog. It wasn’t worth the trouble of studying since ... ”
Mr. Garnier needed no more explanations. He understood the profound disturbance caused by the successive blows in the life of this adolescent lad who sought in vain for an anchor to which he could secure his bark.
“Listen, Patrick! Whatever happens to us in our lives, it is always worth the trouble to live bravely and to struggle; because one doesn’t live for oneself alone, nor even for others altogether, but for God; and God never disappoints us.”
“God? He is so far away. Is He interested in us? I don’t know Him. How can one live for Him?”
“He wants above everything that we should know Him, because He loves us and longs to help us... Would you like me to tell you my history?”
Patrick’s eyes brightened with interest.
“My parents were rich; I was the only child and they spoiled me, giving me everything I fancied. I was about your age and studying Classics before taking up medicine, when they were both killed in a terrible accident on the road! Soon I found that my prospects were not so brilliant as I had thought; we had lived beyond our means. The house had to be sold, and I had just enough money to allow me to live and continue at school - though not the former expensive one.
“I was so unhappy that I rebelled against my fate, lost my taste for study and commenced to go with a gang of good-for-nothings of whom I became the leader. Punishments, threats, nothing affected me. One day, having gone beyond the limit, I was given three days suspension, after which I had to see the Headmaster. I had no illusions; I would certainly be expelled.
“Imagine my amazement when he took me in his car for a long drive! I can’t tell you all he said. I only know that his kindness melted my heart, and that day’s outing transformed me. He was indeed a greathearted Christian man. He gave me courage to struggle and to work. It is to him that I owed my return to normal, my renewed interest in my work and career, and gave me understanding of true values. Through the care of this man of God I learned to know his Master, and He became mine.
“In looking back I can see that though God had taken much from me, it was that He wanted to enrich me with Himself and to give me more - much more - than mere material wealth. Of course I did not understand this all at once.
The doctor rose. Patrick had listened eagerly to his story. Someone else had suffered and could understand his wounded feelings.
“Thank you,” said he, slipping his wasted hand into the doctor’s. “You will come back, won’t you? And please tell John that I am sorry.”