13 OCTOBER 1923, Page 15

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—A doctor told me

that he was once called in to see a country-woman who was in a serious condition. She was well- to-do, and he expressed surprise that she had allowed her trouble to go on so long without having a doctor. "Oh, I have had a doctor," she said, naming a sort of quack of the countryside. On his expressing surprise at her employing this man, she explained : "I knew he was killing me, but he owed me some money, and it was the only way I could ever

get it out of him."—I am, Sir, &c., W. M. T.