professional services ceased to be necessary, Dr. Wilde continued his
friendship. He wrote Miss Travers innumerable letters: he advised her as to
her reading and sent her books and tickets for places of amusement: he even
insisted that she should be better dressed, and pressed money upon her to buy
bonnets and clothes and frequently invited her to his house for dinners and
parties. The friendship went on in this sentimental kindly way for some five
or six years till 1860.
The wily Serjeant knew enough about human nature to feel that it was necessary
to discover some dramatic incident to change benevolent sympathy into passion,
and he certainly found what he wanted.
Miss Travers, it appeared, had been burnt low down on her neck when a child:
the cicatrice could still be seen, though it was gradually disappearing. When
her ears were being examined by Dr. Wilde, it was customary for her to kneel
on a hassock before him, and he thus discovered this burn on her neck. After
her hearing improved he still continued to examine the cicatrice from time to
time, pretending to note the speed with which it was disappearing. Some time
in '60 or '61 Miss Travers had a corn on the sole of her foot which gave her
some pain. Dr. Wilde did her the honour of paring the corn with his own hands
and painting it with iodine. The cunning Serjeant could not help saying with
some confusion, natural or assumed, "that it would have been just as well--at
least there are men of such temperament that it would be dangerous to have such
a manipulation going on." The spectators in the court smiled, feeling that
in "manipulation" the Serjeant had found the most neatly suggestive word.
Naturally at this point Serjeant Sullivan interfered in order to stem the rising
tide of interest and to blunt the point of the accusation. Sir William Wilde,
he said, was not the man to shrink from any investigation: but he was only in
the case formally and he could not meet the allegations, which therefore were
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