them had he possessed a free moment, but the first of August found him
as busy as ever, in spite of the fact that the city was deserted by the
fashionable world. Sickness has fashions of its own, and the fame he had
achieved as "the surgeon who cures without operating," brought him not a
few calls from those who had nothing to commend them save their
suffering and their faith. Every doctor worthy the name has a set of
books kept only by his recording angel, and Earl's invisible guardian
made many entries that summer, and there were times when even the
insistence of Leonora could not make him feel willing to leave those who
seemed so wholly dependent upon his presence for their physical welfare.

Now and then, in spite of his all-absorbing work, there came to his
sensitive consciousness a feeling of foreboding and dread that he could
not explain, save by some subtle law of suggestion, as he recalled half
in mirth and half in seriousness the dark prophecies of the astrologist
at the suffrage ball. He had suspected his brother Frank, and when he
learned that the seeress was Miss Renner, that suspicion had been
confirmed; Frank might have given her the date of Leonora's birthday,
but he had nothing to do with the warning she had given him that
something would happen within the next twenty-four hours which would
have a bearing on his whole career. Within two hours he had treated
little Alice Bell, and out of that event had grown his more intimate
acquaintance with Silvia, and the marked hostility of Dr. Morris. The
child was doing as well as could be expected, but he was greatly
disturbed over her condition, and was building up her general health in
the hope of overcoming the disease.

He had asked Miss Renner one or two questions, but she had evaded him,
and while he had thought of calling on her and asking for the promised
horoscope, which she did not send, the idea seemed absurd, and he had no
time to carry it out.

On the fourth of August he received a summons to come to Magnolia,
Massachusetts, to attend a former patient who was spending the summer
there, and he left New York, intending to remain a week.

His movements had become a matter of interest to the ubiquitous
newspaper reporter, and as the dog-days in New York were not prolific
in startling items, the fact of his being sent for to attend a prominent
New York man at Magnolia was seized upon and made into a fairly readable
first page news story.

He arrang