Washingtone Square

For a man whose trade was to keep people alive, he had certainly done poorly in his own family; and a bright doc-tor who within three years loses his wife and his little boy should perhaps be prepared to see either his skill or his affection impugned.  Our friend, however, escaped criti-cism: that is, he escaped all criticism but his own, which was much the most competent and most formidable.  He walked under the weight of this very private censure for the rest of his days, and bore for ever the scars of a cas-tigation to which the strongest hand he knew had treat-ed him on the night that followed his wife’s death…