cident--to have completely obliterated the time
immediately preceding her fall. The moment when Rendel, seeing her
gradually recovering, first ventured on some allusion to Stamfordham
and to what had taken place the day her father was taken ill, he saw a
puzzled, bewildered look in her face, as though she had no idea of what
he was saying, and he was seized by a fear almost too ghastly to be
endurable.

"Lord Stamfordham?" she said, puzzled. "When? I don't know about it."

But the doctor reassured him, and told him that all would come right:
she would be herself again, even if she never regained the memory of
what had happened before her fall.

"It is a common result of an accident of this kind," he said, "and need
give you no special cause for anxiety. I have known two or three cases
in which men who have completely recovered in other respects have never
regained the memory of what immediately preceded the accident. That girl
who was thrown in the Park a month ago, you remember--her horse ran away
and threw her over the railings--although she got absolutely right, does
not remember what she did that morning, or even the night before. And
after all," he added, "it does not seem to me so very desirable that
Mrs. Rendel should remember those two particular days she may have
lost."

Rendel gave an inward shudder. If he could but have forgotten them too!

"They were full, as I understand, of anxiety and grief about her
father's condition."

"They were," said Rendel. "It would be much better if she did not
remember them."

"That's right, keep your heart up, then," said Morgan, all
unconsciously; "and above all, no excitement for her, no anxiety, no
irritation. Change of scene would be good for her, perhaps, and seeing
one or two people. If I were you, I should take her to some German
baths. On every ground I should think that would be the best thing for
her."

See people? Rendel felt, with the sense of having received a blow, what
sort of aspect social intercourse presented to him now. But as the days
went on Doctor Morgan insisted more strongly on the necessity that
Rachel should go for a definite 'cure' somewhere, and recommended a
special place, Bad-Schleppenheim.

"Bad-Schleppenheim," he said, "is on the whole as good a place as you
could go to."

"But isn't it thronged with English people?" said Rendel.

"Not unduly," said Morgan. "At any rate, I think it is worth trying."

"I wonder if my wife would lik