[Illustration: "LADY STUDLEY SPOKE WITH GREAT EMPHASIS."]

Lady Studley spoke with great emphasis and earnestness. Her long,
slender hands were clasped tightly together. She had drawn off her
gloves and was bending forward in her chair. Her big, childish, and
somewhat restless blue eyes were fixed imploringly on my face.

"I love my husband," she said, tears suddenly filling them--"and it is
dreadful, dreadful, to see him suffer as he does. He will die unless
someone comes to his aid. Oh, I know I am asking an immense thing, when
I beg of you to leave all your patients and come to the country. But we
can pay. Money is no object whatever to us. We can, we will, gladly pay
you for your services."

"I must think the matter over," I said. "You flatter me by wishing for
me, and by believing that I can render you assistance, but I cannot take
a step of this kind in a hurry. I will write to you by to-night's post
if you will give me your address. In the meantime, kindly tell me some
of the symptoms of Sir Henry's malady."

"I fear it is a malady of the mind," she answered immediately, "but it
is of so vivid and so startling a character, that unless relief is soon
obtained, the body must give way under the strain. You see that I am
very young, Dr. Halifax. Perhaps I look younger than I am--my age is
twenty-two. My husband is twenty years my senior. He would, however, be
considered by most people still a young man. He is a great scholar, and
has always had more or less the habits of a recluse. He is fond of
living in his library, and likes nothing better than to be surrounded by
books of all sorts. Every modern book worth reading is forwarded to him
by its publisher. He is a very interesting man and a brilliant