There was no help for it.

The nurse was right, and he must perform the disagreeable duty of letting the Doctor know that he was getting into a track which might very probably lead to mischief, and that he must back out as fast as he could.
At 2 P.M.Gifted Hopkins presented the following note at the Doctor's door: "Mr.Byles Gridley would be much obliged to Dr.Fordyce Hurlbut if he would call at his study this evening." "Odd, is n't it, father, the old man's asking me to come and see him?
Those old stub-twist constitutions never want patching." "Old man! old man! Who's that you call old,--not Byles Gridley, hey?
Old! old! Sixty year, more or less! How old was Floyer when he died, Fordyce?
Ninety-odd, was n't it?
Had the asthma though, or he'd have lived to be as old as Dr.Holyoke,--a hundred year and over.

That's old.
But men live to be a good deal more than that sometimes.

What does Byles Gridley want of you, did you say ?" "I'm sure I can't tell, father; I'll go and find out." So he went over to Mrs.Hopkins's in the evening, and was shown up into the study.
Master Gridley treated the Doctor to a cup of such tea as bachelors sometimes keep hid away in mysterious caddies.

He presently began asking certain questions about the grand climacteric, which eventful period of life he was fast approaching.