“But his death corresponded with a time when you werenotparticularly unhealthy, so I surmise you took your time finding another physician.”
“I suppose so. We had a flood that year. Anne seemed all right, so I did not prioritise it.”
“In fact, you never got a physician until that winter, when Anne once again got a nasty cold, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Was there something different about this new physician?”
Anne looked embarrassed. “I would prefer not to say.”
Lady Catherine asked. “Why not?”
“When you stand in front of a mirror, you may not pick and choose what the mirror sees, Anne. Answer your mother.”
“By then I was no longer accustomed to holding my nose and taking vile concoctions, so—”
She stared at her hands in embarrassment, and her mother gently asked, “So?”
“I disposed of most of them. I worked out a way to dump the bulk of them into the chamber pot.”
Lady Catherine looked appalled, and Elizabeth jumped in. “I do not oppose physicians, or at least notallof them, but if you look at the slope of this line, you will see Anne recoveredmuchmore quickly than at any time in the past. She went from 30-60 in 2 months. Still not the most robust recovery in human history, but doing extremely well by her standards.”
Lady Catherine said, “Say it plainly.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I do not believe the concoctions were helpful, and they may even have been harmful. Or perhaps Dr Choak’s were helpful and the new physicians’ harmful, or the reverse, or none of them did anything at all. We will never know, but Ican seethat at that particular point in her life, she recovered quickly.”
Both ladies looked at the graphs, and at last Lady Catherine said, “I can see the reason for your style. I might never have worked it out just from reading the journals.”
“Perhaps, and perhaps not. Sometimes all you need is to have someone unaffected examine a story to get more meaning. It probably matters little that I use mathematics and graphs. A good storyteller might just lay out the plot and come to the same conclusion, or a painter might have tried to paint the scenes to bring them to life. I suspect that if you had handed the journals over to either of your nephews, they would have come to the same conclusion.”
Lady Catherine nodded, and Anne said, “Perhaps, Lizzy. It all seems so obvious in retrospect.”
“Things usually do. That is what mirrors are for… apparently.”
Frogs and Pots
Anne and her mother sat in thought for a few minutes before Anne spoke. “So, having read of most of my life, I am certain you have an idea how to proceed. You can see that I have enjoyed periods as high as 60, but, by your own estimates, in my good months I remain at least 10-20 points below your normal level.”
“I believe so. Do you want analysis or recommendation?”
“Recommendation,” Anne replied quickly, and Lady Catherine considered it for some time before she agreed.
“In the end, I believe you suffer from theboiling frog problem[xxii]. You both rely too much on status quo, and suffer a lack of—how shall I say it?—decisiveness. There is an old fable that serves as a metaphor, though it is probably scientifically incorrect.”
“Go on,” Lady Catherine said.
“Legend says if you throw a frog into hot water, it will jump straight out. However, if you put one in a pot of cool water and heat it gradually, the frog will eventually be boiled alive. It does not react to the alteration in its circumstances, because the danger comes too gradually for it to notice.”
Elizabeth waited as patiently as she could.
Finally, Lady Catherine said, “This is what you mean by lack of decisiveness?”
“Correct! Anne never achieves true happiness because she has grown accustomed to feeling mediocre. To be honest, ill health, or at least the impression of it, offers certain benefits.”
Anne shook her head vigorously, but at least the thought had been spoken aloud.
“You suggest Anne and I are in the pot together?”
