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Doctor Claudius
Project Gutenberg's Doctor Claudius, A True Story, by F. Marion Crawford This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Doctor Claudius, A True Story
Author: F. Marion Crawford
Release Date: March 1, 2005 [EBook #15223]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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DOCTOR CLAUDIUS
A True Story
BY F. MARION CRAWFORD
Author OF "MR. ISAACS"
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1883
Dedicated
TO
MY DEAR FRIENDS
THE COUNTESS MARGARET AND
CLAUDIUS, PH.D.
DOCTOR CLAUDIUS.
CHAPTER I.
"I believe I am old," said the Doctor, pushing his straight-backed wooden chair from the table, and turning from his books to look out of his small window. "Yes, I am certainly very old," he said again, rapping absently on the arm of the chair with the pen he held. But the fingers that held the instrument were neither thin nor withered, and there was no trembling in the careless motion of the hand. The flaxen hair, long and tangled, was thick on the massive head, and the broad shoulders were flat and square across. Whatever Dr. Claudius might say of himself, he certainly did not look old.
And yet he said to himself that he was, and he probably knew. He said to himself, as he had said every day for many long months, that this was the secr