know what I'm talking about. I've seen what
she's after, the artful hussy,--and please God, I'll circumvent her."

"Sir--sir!"

"Haud your wheesht, Tommy. Ye're but a bairn and an ignorant fule-bairn
at that:"--the broad Scotch accent lent itself readily to a wonderful
mingling of compassion and contempt; "hark to me,--what? You're
trembling?"--for the youth's lanky frame quivered beneath the weight of
his hand. "Lord, has it gone as far as that?" muttered the speaker,
under his breath.

Then he let go the young man's shoulder, and turned and shut the door
carefully. "Sit ye down: sit, I tell ye. You are going to hear the
truth, and you'll _have_ to hear it. What? You think I've no eyes nor
ears nor sense, because _you_ have none--except for her? Tommy,--" he
paused and drew a breath, a long, deep breath--"Tommy, my man, I've that
to say to you to-day I've never said to mortal man, nor woman before.
Will ye listen--but listen ye must, only--only I would as soon ye heard
it kindly, for your own sake. Tommy, I _know what it's like_."

Tommy started, lifted his eyes, and let them fall again.

"Aye, I know;"--the big, shaggy head nodded slowly, and the words
dropped one by one from the full, protruding lips. "The world's a dream
while it lasts.... You walk among shadows, without _she's_ there....
There's no sleep at night,--there's only thinking, and tossing, and
sweating--and heugh! the next hour strikes!... And one day it's heaven,
and the next hell.... And it ends----"

There was a long silence.

"It was twenty years ago," said the doctor, simply. "Tommy lad, would
you--would you care to hear about it? You shall." He covered his eyes
with his hand and had begun to speak ere he removed it. "I was about
your age, but I was still at college; I left late. It was a custom in
Edinburgh for the professors to ask us students once a year to an
evening party; and although some of us did not care over much for that
kind of entertainment, we could not have refused if we would. I remember
I was annoyed at having to buy a dress suit, when my invitation came; I
thought it waste of money, and money was scarce in those days. Tommy,
I've got that suit now....

"You know that I am as happily married as a man can be;" the speaker
started afresh. "No husband ever had a better, a dearer, or a fonder
wife--but she has never thought of inquiring into the secret of that
locked drawer upstairs,--and though I shall tell it her some day, I