Wonderland suspicion gave place to a half-envious respect.
Whether much custom came to the dentist no one could decide.

There is no trade or profession in which the struggling man will not receive some faint show of encouragement.

Pedestrians of agonised aspect, with handkerchiefs held convulsively before their mouths, were seen to rush wildly towards the dentist's door, then pause for a moment, stricken by a sudden terror, and anon feebly pull the handle of an inflexible bell.
Cabs had been heard to approach that fatal door--generally on wet days; for there seems to be a kind of fitness in the choice of damp and dismal weather for the extraction of teeth.

Elderly ladies and gentlemen had been known to come many times to the Fitzgeorgian mansion.

There was a legend of an old lady who had been seen to arrive in a brougham, especially weird and nut-crackery of aspect, and to depart half an hour afterwards a beautified and renovated creature.