[rajnish manga]

The reins dragging loosely, one horse barely harnessed to the other, the carriage swaying behind, last of all the fur coat in the snow. “Giddy up,” I said, but there was no giddying up about it. We dragged through the snowy desert like old men; for a long time the fresh but inaccurate singing of the children resounded behind us:

Enjoy yourselves, you patients.
The doctor's laid in bed with you.

I'll never come home at this rate. My flourishing practice is lost. A successor is robbing me, but to no
avail, for he cannot replace me. In my house the disgusting groom is wreaking havoc. Rosa is his victim. I
will not think it through. Naked, abandoned to the frost of this unhappy age, with an earthly carriage and
unearthly horses, I drive around by myself, an old man. My fur coat hangs behind the wagon, but I cannot
reach it, and no one from the nimble rabble of patients lifts a finger. Betrayed! Betrayed! Once one responds
to a false alarm on the night bell, there's no making it good again—not ever.

**