seizure,--cannot account either for the fainting or the agitation with
which she awoke from sleep."

"I think I can account for both. The first room in which she
entered--that in which she fainted--had its window open; the sides of the
window are overgrown with rank creeping plants in full blossom. Miss
Ashleigh had already predisposed herself to injurious effects from the
effluvia by fatigue, excitement, imprudence in sitting out at the fall of
a heavy dew. The sleep after the fainting fit was the more disturbed,
because Nature, always alert and active in subjects so young, was making
its own effort to right itself from an injury. Nature has nearly
succeeded. What I have prescribed will a little aid and accelerate that
which Nature has yet to do, and in a day or two I do not doubt that your
daughter will be perfectly restored. Only let me recommend care to avoid
exposure to the open air during the close of the day. Let her avoid also
the room in which she was first seized, for it is a strange phenomenon in
nervous temperaments that a nervous attack may, without visible cause, be
repeated in the same place where it was first experienced. You had better
shut up the chamber for at least some weeks, burn fires in it, repaint and
paper it, sprinkle chloroform. You are not, perhaps, aware that Dr. Lloyd
died in that room after a prolonged illness. Suffer me to wait till your
servant returns with the medicine, and let me employ the interval in
asking you a few questions. Miss Ashleigh, you say, never had a fainting
fit before. I should presume that she is not what we call strong. But
has she ever had any illness that alarmed you?"

"Never."

"No great liability to cold and cough, to attacks of the chest or lungs?"