He Opened A Matchmaking Agency In 18Th Century London [EN]: Chapter 80

80. Elisa’s Pain

◈ Sir Joseph Butler’s Residence

Saturday afternoon.

As promised, Theo visited Sir Butler’s house for a marriage consultation.

It was a return favor for the introduction to Mr. Spencer.

After getting off the carriage in the well-kept garden, Mrs. Butler greeted him.

“Welcome, Lord Sanderson. Thank you so much for coming.”

“It’s nothing. Thanks to you, I was introduced to Mr. Spencer, which will be a great help in running the coffee farm.”

“I’m so glad it helped.”

He was guided into the house by Mrs. Butler.

The house was harmoniously decorated with quite expensive furniture.

Unlike the ostentatious furniture commonly found in colonial planters’ homes, there were many tasteful items that showed careful consideration of their use. One could easily guess the Butler couple’s refined preferences.

“It seems Sir Butler is out?”

“Yes. My husband and sons have been invited to a friend’s gathering and are out.”

“Ah, yes.”

It seemed that only Mrs. Butler and Elisa were at home.

“Miss Butler must be at home?”

“Yes. But she’s not feeling well and is resting in her room. I’ve told the maid, so she’ll be down soon.”

“Oh dear. She didn’t look well when I first saw her last time either. Is she usually a bit weak?”

“No. She looks delicate, but she’s never been seriously ill or bedridden in her life. But in the last few weeks, she’s just been lying down like that. Sigh, that’s why I’m so upset.”

“…Yes.”

Thump-

Just then, the door opened and Miss Elisa Butler entered the living room.

“Lord Sanderson, it’s nice to see you again.”

Elisa bowed politely.

Theo also stood up and politely returned the greeting.

With her large eyes and fine jawline, she was a beautiful young lady exuding feminine charm.

However, Elisa’s complexion was far too pale as she raised her head.

‘Hmm… her condition is much worse than when I saw her last time?’

After drinking tea and asking Elisa various questions, Theo could immediately tell that her mental state was very unstable.

The signs of her distress were more pronounced, her movements and speech were slightly slower, and her responsiveness was also greatly reduced.

Moreover, she kept forgetting what she had said and couldn’t concentrate.

It seemed impossible to have a long consultation.

“It seems like you’re not feeling well today, Miss Butler. Perhaps you should stop here and go rest.”

Theo was considerate of Elisa, who seemed to be struggling even to sit.

“Lord Sanderson, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright. Please go and rest.”

Mrs. Butler was restless beside Elisa, who was weakly bowing her head.

“Oh, I don’t know why she’s acting like this today. I thought she was getting a little better yesterday.”

Mrs. Butler looked troubled, wondering if she was ruining a good opportunity that she had worked hard to arrange.

However, her daughter’s condition was too poor even for her to ignore.

The wife had no choice but to support her daughter and help her leave the room.

Even in her back view as she leaned on her mother, Elisa’s unnatural movements were noticeable.

‘Hmm… the symptoms are unusual. Could this be…?’

Theo asked Mrs. Butler, who had put her daughter to bed.

“Has Miss Butler complained of paralysis in any parts of her body recently?”

Mrs. Butler raised her head sharply.

“Ah… no, how did you know…?”

From the surprised look on the wife’s face, Theo was convinced that Elisa had ‘Conversion disorder’ [a mental condition where stress manifests as physical symptoms].

Conversion disorder.

A mental disorder in which mental energy, caused by psychological conflict, is converted into neurological physical symptoms.

In particular, if a person who has been healthy without any major illness suddenly shows sensory or motor abnormalities like Elisa, conversion disorder can be suspected.

In modern times, accurate diagnosis could be made using devices such as electroencephalograms or MRI scans, but this was impossible in this era.

Fortunately, Theo was able to sense the patient’s emotional state precisely, and was able to determine whether it was due to a physical illness or a mental disorder.

The 18th-century doctors would focus only on Elisa’s physical manifestations and try to treat them, but the more they did, the more the symptoms would worsen, becoming a chronic disease that would recur even after temporary relief.

For patients with this conversion disorder, psychological treatment must be prioritized over physical treatment in order to hope for a complete cure.

“I was worried from the first time I saw her, but it seems my guess was correct.”

“Yes?”

Mrs. Butler was anxious.

Who was Theo?

He had healed King George and the son of the Earl of Maxwell at once, and had even received an offer to be the royal physician from His Majesty.

He had predicted the paralysis symptoms with a serious face, so Mrs. Butler’s heart could not help but sink with worry.

“So… does Elisa have some kind of serious illness…?”

Theo calmly explained to Mrs. Butler, who asked with a nervous expression.

“Right now, Miss Elisa is psychologically very stressed and extremely anxious. It seems that it has manifested as a physical illness.”

“Yes? It’s manifested as a physical… illness?”

Mrs. Butler’s face grew increasingly pale with fear.

“Mrs. Butler, I would like you to tell me everything about any significant events that have happened recently in relation to your daughter, anything that could be a mental burden. Otherwise, your daughter may be in a much more serious situation than she is now.”

“… …”

Conversion disorder is a disease in which stress symptoms created in an unconscious process are manifested as physical symptoms.

In other words, the disorder is mainly caused by psychological factors.

For example, when intense anger is not expressed and is suppressed, or when feelings that seem overwhelming are not fully expressed and are restrained, etc.

If continued psychological pressure is not properly resolved and accumulates as extreme stress, it is a phenomenon in which it suddenly transfers to a physical illness, and it is usually 2 to 10 times more common in women than in men.

In particular, if Elisa has been healthy without any particular problems, the psychological factors must be thoroughly examined for a quick cure.

Theo said firmly to Mrs. Butler, who was unable to speak and hesitated.

“I hope you don’t take my words lightly. If you know anything at all about what happened to your daughter, please tell me anything. Otherwise, it can really progress to a serious state.”

“… …”

Mrs. Butler’s mouth was pulled back and her eyebrows rose, showing a subtle expression of strong fear.

Acute conversion disorder symptoms can be significantly improved in about several days to a month in about 90% of cases if the patient’s stressful situation is resolved and appropriate measures are taken.

However, if the stressful situation persists and proper psychological treatment is not accompanied, it becomes connected to a serious physical illness.

Elisa was also in a dangerous state where physical disability could manifest and she could suffer for the rest of her life if she did not start treatment quickly.

Theo probed Mrs. Butler, who was hesitating.

“For example, there was a problem and a breakup with someone she was very fond of until recently…”

At that moment, Mrs. Butler’s face hardened.

“No! It’s not like that! It’s just that we lived near each other, so they had interactions since they were young, and that’s why they got a little attached.”

The wife was even making excuses that she hadn’t even been asked about.

Theo was convinced that his guess was correct.

At the first dinner, everyone was trying to make a good impression on Theo, but Elisa was the only one who seemed like she had been dragged along with a bothered expression. As expected, it seemed that she had someone she deeply cared about.

So much so that her heart was so sick.

‘Hmm… so they were forcibly separated.’

As Theo stared silently, Mrs. Butler sighed deeply and began to confess on her own.

“To be honest, I’m not sure if she’s sick because of that. But Lord Sanderson told me to say anything if I had any ideas…”

“Yes, anything is fine. Just tell me anything that might have made your daughter mentally distressed.”

After a moment of hesitation, the wife opened her mouth as if she had made up her mind.

“Elisa has been friends with Leonard Evans, the second son of the Isaac Evans Baronet family, since she was a child. We moved here several years ago, so now we live far away from each other.

Until Elisa was 17, the Evans Baronet family and our house were only 10 minutes away. So the two could spend time together more often.”

Mrs. Butler thought that her daughter was having a hard time because of the second son of the Evans Baronet family.

“Sir Isaac Evans is a prestigious family with even a noble title [Baronet is a hereditary title below a Baron], and runs a large sugar cane farm that is among the top three in Jamaica along with our farm.

Although we did not have a noble title, we were gentry from a noble family, so we had a very close relationship with the Isaac Evans Baronet family, who came to Jamaica around the same time.”

Elisa and Leonard, who had no other friends to play with at their age, naturally became close and built a special friendship, and because they were two years apart, they developed a strong bond with each other.

However, a major change came to the relationship between the two families when Sir Isaac Evans suddenly passed away.

“Sir Isaac Evans, who had such a good personality, passed away so suddenly, and his eldest son, Jacob Evans, inherited the baronet title.”

“Yes.”

“Unlike the other members of the family, Sir Jacob had a rough personality and acted recklessly, and as Jacob became the head of the baronet family, he gradually began to clash with our family in various ways.”

Jacob Evans, who was greedy for money, tried to buy sugar cane farms and expand the scale even further.

However, an event occurred that decisively broke the relationship as he tried to expand the farm scale in this way.

A fight broke out between the eldest sons of the two families to secure young and strong slaves at the slave auction.

To maintain the arduous and difficult sugar cane farm, many young and strong slaves were needed, and competition at the slave auction was an unavoidable problem in order to obtain good slaves.

At first, Elisa’s older brother, Jonathan, made many concessions to Jacob Evans.

This was because when Sir Isaac Evans was alive, they had provided each other with the necessary manpower between farms and had given and received considerable help.

So even when Jacob Evans raised the auction price and swept away the good slaves, Jonathan stepped back and did not participate in the competition.

However, a problem arose when there was a time when the Butler farm was severely short of young enslaved people.

Jonathan Butler finally exploded when Jacob Evans swept away the young slaves again even though there were enough slaves.

Jonathan won the slave at a very high price after competing with Jacob Evans, and the two families began to clash in earnest as they engaged in competitive confrontations, trying not to lose even after that.

Then, by chance, a small argument broke out between the two who met at a ball, and Jacob gave a great insult, saying that the gentry family without a noble title was defying his family, which had a much higher status.

And he criticized the Butler family as a trivial family and a family of liars who ate lies like rice.

Jonathan, who heard the words ‘liar family’ in front of people, could not hold back his accumulated emotions and issued a duel request with severe profanity.

In modern society, the word ‘liar’ is not a big deal, but in the modern British aristocratic society, where the honor of the family was considered as precious as life, it was a very insulting word.

And if you were publicly disgraced like this, a duel would follow, which was a common occurrence among young, energetic nobles at the time.

“Because of that, a terrible duel took place at dawn, and the bullet from the pistol fired by our son hit Sir Jacob Evans’ left leg.”

Jonathan Butler suffered only minor injuries in this duel, but Sir Jacob Evans suffered a serious injury to his left leg and became disabled for life.

And with this, the two families became mortal enemies.

The problem was Elisa Butler and Leonard Evans, who were caught between them.

Mrs. Butler said that she had already noticed that the two had special feelings beyond friendship.

“When Sir Isaac Evans was alive and the two families were on good terms, I thought Leonard was not a bad match for our Elisa.

He was polite, had an impeccable appearance, and was smart since he was young. I didn’t think it would be easy to meet such a man even if I went to London.”

However, since the family was insulted and eventually suffered a disability due to a life-threatening duel, the two families could no longer be close.

Theo couldn’t help but sigh at the complicated relationship between the two families.

‘Huh-, this is nothing more than a Romeo and Juliet story?’

Because of that, the two had not even seen each other for over a year, and as the time of separation grew longer, abnormal signs began to appear in Elisa’s body.

“A while ago, I was drinking tea, and Elisa kept touching her hand. So I asked her why, and she said she had no sensation in her hand as if she was wearing gloves.”

Theo nodded.

The typical symptom of conversion disorder is sensory abnormality due to paralysis.

When I first saw her last time, the muscle spasms or paralysis of her face indicated that the suppressed emotions had already been converted into physical illness due to stress.

“So I was going to take Elisa to London around the end of this year and get her married. There are many doctors there who can treat her, and it will be easier to find a groom.”

In an era where the concept of mental treatment does not even exist, it is impossible for an 18th-century doctor to treat conversion disorder symptoms.

If Elisa was taken to London, she would probably end up in Bethlem Mental Hospital [a notorious mental asylum in London] in a few months and end up with a miserable life.

Theo shook his head.

“No, you absolutely must not do that. That method will only worsen Miss Elisa’s condition.”

“Then what should I do?”

Theo, who had been stroking his chin and thinking for a moment, raised his head.

“If you don’t heal your daughter’s emotional state right now and leave her as she is, she may not be able to speak or lose some of her eyesight in severe cases.”

Surprised, Mrs. Butler covered her mouth with her hand.

“Yes? She can’t… speak? She… loses her eyesight? What… what is that?”

“Unfortunately, the disease of the mind has already spread a lot to the disease of the body. You need to start treatment quickly to avoid such serious symptoms.”

Mrs. Butler was dizzy at Theo’s chilling warning.

“Then… what should I do? How… how can I treat our Elisa?”

The wife’s lips were dry and her voice was cracking.

“Miss Butler doesn’t need any special medicine right now. To cure the disease in her heart, you must remove the cause.”

“If the cause…?”

“Leonard Evans.”

“… …”

“First of all, I think we should bring that friend and examine him. So we need to carefully observe whether the symptoms have worsened due to that friend named Leonard. For now, it seems to be the only way to stop Miss Butler’s rapidly deteriorating condition.

Anyway, Elisa’s disease is progressing too fast, so you need to hurry to slow it down even a little.”

“… …”