In their Wisdom by C.P. Snow

While others whom Dr Pemberton wished to dismiss from his mind were assimilating, or trying to adjust to, the result of the appeal, he had a different preoccupation. To his surprise, almost to his consternation, he couldn't make himself professionally objective about a piece of surgery. A proper doctor – it was a lifetime maxim of his – didn't worry about operations in advance. It did no good. One knew the chances. So did the surgeon. So did the patient. It was weak to worry. And yet he found himself doing so about Adam Sedgwick's operation.

Shortly after the conversation in the tea room, on his second day in the Lords, Pemberton had written a letter. He took unusual pains about it, and for him it was an unusually polite letter, signed in his new style. He explained to Sedgwick that he was the former Hillmorton's heir and that he had just taken his seat. He was a working physician, he said, and gave his qualifications. He had a motive for this, and in a first draft stressed that he had passed his Membership at the earliest possible age. Then he had unfamiliar qualms, and rewrote the letter. He had heard that Sedgwick wasn't well. Could he call on him, and (Pemberton bit down his pride) revive a family acquaintance?