“I’ll bring it all to your room for the tailor to adjust tomorrow,” Dora said, and started to carry out the garments.

Later that afternoon, Dr. Ross arrived. Garland accompanied him to the doorway of the Swan Room and introduced him. He was a short man, only a few inches taller than I was, with very thin gray hair on the sides and back, crowning a bald head peppered with brown age spots. He had thick gray eyebrows and a narrow face with a sharp nose. His small shoulders and upper back were raised so that he resembled someone in a constant cringe. Garland added that he was the family doctor for years and had delivered him. I had no doubt.

After the introduction, Garland left us, but Dora came right in and stood off to the side. Dr. Ross stood gazing at me as if he had forgotten why he had come.

“Well now,” he said. “Let’s see what we have here.” He asked me to lie flat on the bed and then seemed to turn his hands loose like someone releasing two canaries.

The examination was embarrassing. I kept asking, “Do you have to do that?”

“Oh yes, yes,” he said.

When he was finished, he stepped back and said, “I’ve never had a healthier specimen.”

“Specimen?”

He smiled, patted me on the thigh, and left to report to Garland.

I could see from Dora’s expression that she sympathized with my discomfort. I made up my mind to again ask Garland to hire Nurse Rose. She was better than any midwife, but when I went to look for him, Mrs. Steiner told me he had gone to Charlottesville to work on arrangements for our wedding and reception. He had told her he wouldn’t be back for lunch. Later in the afternoon, a messenger arrived to tell us—me, mainly—that he wouldn’t be back in time for dinner, either. I spent the day exploring more of the house. Dora hovered behind and around me as if she would lunge to pick up anything I dropped. I finally told her to go take a rest or help Mrs. Steiner with her duties, whatever they were.