Pierre Et Jean And Other Tales Author:Guy de Maupassant General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1903 Original Publisher: Review of Reviews Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Fiction / Short Stories Literary Criticism / European / French Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or miss... more »ing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. The Birth Of Suspicion He doctor awoke the following morning fully resolved to make his fortune. Several times already he had formed the same resolution without converting it into a reality. The hope of rapidly acquired wealth had sustained his efforts and his confidence at the commencement of all his trials of new careers, till the first check sent him upon a new one. He lay pondering snug in bed between the warm sheets. How many physicians had grown rich in quite a short time! Nothing was needed but a slight knowledge of the world; for in his studies he had learned to criticise at their true value the most eminent physicians and he judged them to be all blockheads. He was assuredly as good as they were, if not better. If he could possibly obtain a practice among the elite of Havre, he could easily earn a hundred thousand francs a year. He calculated with the utmost precision what his profits would certainly amount to. In the mornings he would visit his patients; a very modest average of ten a day, at twenty francs each, would give seventy- two thousand francs a year at least, or even seventy- five, for an average of ten patients was undoubtedly below the mark. In the afternoon he would receive at home, say, other ten patients, at ten francs each -- that would be thirty-six thousand francs. In round numbers that made an income of a hundred and twenty thousand francs. Old patients, or personal friends, to whom his charge would be but ten...« less