g hours, by the aid of which
horseback riding I have driven off chronic diseases which were almost
incurable.'"

Miss Vincent read this paper aloud to Dr. Butts, and handed it to him
to examine and consider. He listened with a grave countenance and devout
attention.

As she finished reading her account, she exclaimed in the passionate
tones of the deepest conviction,

"There, doctor! Have n't I found the true story of this strange visitor?
Have n't I solved the riddle of the Sphinx? Who can this man be but the
boy of that story? Look at the date of the journal when he was eleven
years old, it would make him twenty-five now, and that is just about the
age the people here think he must be of. What could account so entirely
for his ways and actions as that strange poisoning which produces the
state they call Tarantism? I am just as sure it must be that as I am
that I am alive. Oh, doctor, doctor, I must be right,--this Signprino
M ... Ch... was the boy Maurice Kirkwood, and the story accounts for
everything,--his solitary habits, his dread of people,--it must be
because they wear the colors he can't bear. His morning rides on
horseback, his coming here just as the season was approaching which
would aggravate all his symptoms, does n't all this prove that I must be
right in my conjecture,--no, my conviction?"

The doctor knew too much to interrupt the young enthusiast, and so he
let her run on until she ran down. He was more used to the rules of
evidence than she was, and could not accept her positive conclusion so
readily as she would have liked to have him. He knew that beginners are
very apt to make what they think are discoveries. But he had been an
angler and knew the meaning of a yielding rod and an easy-running reel.
He said quietly,

"You are a most sagacious young lady, and a very pretty prima facie case
it is that you make out. I can see no proof that Mr. Kirkwood is not
the same person as the M... Ch... of the medical journal,--that is, if
I accept your explanation of the difference in the initials of these two
names. Even if there were a difference, that would not disprove their
identity, for the initials of patients whose cases are reported by their
physicians are often altered for the purpose of concealment. I do not
know, however, that Mr. Kirkwood has shown any special aversion to any
particular color. It might be interesting to inquire whether it is so,
but it is a delicate matter. I don't exactly see