Almighty
The doctor could see that the parents were “very nervous,” “eyeing” him “up and down distrustfully.” “As often, in such cases,” they weren’t telling him more “than they had to do.” They made showed him pretty clear that it was up to him to tell them. That was why they were spending “three dollars” on him. The irony was that it was up to them to find out what bothered their child. The little girl had managed to fool them into believing that her throat was fine and they didn’t even check. They thought that the doctor was almighty.
Promises
The doctor knew that he had to check the girl’s throat in order to make sure that it wasn’t sore. The only one thing that prevented him from doing it was unwillingness of the girl to obey and open her mouth. He “coaxed,” smiled in his “best professional manner,” and even asked her different questions to distract her, but it didn’t help. The child’s mother tried her best to persuade her daughter to do as she was told. “He won’t hurt you,” she said. The irony was that the doctor did hurt her. What was more, the doctor knew that he had to hurt her to examine her throat.
Nice
The child’s parents called the doctor “the nice man” and it irked him. They thought it would help her. They thought she was afraid of him. Finally, the doctor asked them to stop. The irony was that he wasn’t going to be nice at all. He had already seen two children die from diphtheria and he didn’t want that child to be the next one. The man was ready to break her will, even hurt her in order to check her throat and – consequently – save her from inevitable death from diphtheria.
