Receiving wounds, he was laid up in hospital; and being of an
active turn of mind and debarred from other pursuits, he fell (like Dr.
Marie Zakrzewski) to studying the cards renewed every day above the
patients' beds with the disease written thereon, its symptoms, and its
treatment; in this manner he acquired quite a knowledge of medicine. He
was, however, mercifully prevented from practising by the fact, that,
upon repeating his story to an acquaintance, he met, as before, with
such total disbelief, that, most fortunately for many readers, he
determined at once to devote the remainder of his days to fiction.
How much faith such a narrative deserves we leave others to decide. It,
however, has the virtue, as Una declares again, of plausibly explaining
Mr. Reade's entire misapprehension of the feminine portion of
humanity,--since, during the whole course of such a career, it would
have been impossible that he should have made intimate acquaintance with
a single specimen of the sex. It is true that in "Christie Johnstone" he
speaks of the musical performances of certain female relatives of his
own; but of course that is to be taken only as a part of the fiction.
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