The result of this treatment was that I became miserable and discontented; spent whole days wandering about the woods; and degenerated into a creature half idler and half misanthrope.

I had never loved the profession of medicine.

I should never have chosen it had I been free to follow my own inclinations: but having diligently fitted myself to enter it with credit, I felt that my father wronged me in this delay; and I felt it perhaps all the more bitterly because my labor had been none of love.

Happily for me, however, he saw his error before it was too late, and repaired it generously.
"Basil," said he, beckoning me one morning into the consulting-room, "I want to speak to you." I obeyed sullenly, and stood leaning up against the window, with my hands in my pockets.
"You've been worrying me, Basil, more than enough these last few months," he said, rummaging among his papers, and speaking in a low, constrained voice.

"I don't choose to be worried any longer.