ened at the allusion to the doctor. Something
practical might be got out of the doctor. Scientific man. Sure to see
this very obscure subject under a new light. "How does it strike the
doctor now?" said the captain. "Viewed simply as a Case, ma'am, how does
it strike the doctor?"

"He will give no positive opinion," Mrs. Crayford answered. "He told
me that such cases as Clara's were by no means unfamiliar to medical
practice. 'We know,' he told me, 'that certain disordered conditions of
the brain and the nervous system produce results quite as extraordinary
as any that you have described--and there our knowledge ends. Neither my
science nor any man's science can clear up the mystery in this case.
It is an especially difficult case to deal with, because Miss Burnham's
early associations dispose her to attach a superstitious importance to
the malady--the hysterical malady as some doctors would call it--from
which she suffers. I can give you instructions for preserving her
general health; and I can recommend you to try some change in her
life--provided you first relieve her mind of any secret anxieties that
may possibly be preying on it.'"

The captain smiled self-approvingly. The doctor had justified his
anticipations. The doctor had suggested a practical solution of the
difficulty.

"Ay! ay! At last we have hit the nail on the head! Secret anxieties.
Yes! yes! Plain enough now. A disappointment in love--eh, Mrs.
Crayford?"

"I don't know, Captain Helding; I am quite in the dark. Clara's
confidence in me--in other matters unbounded--is, in this matter of her
(supposed) anxieties, a confidence still withheld. In all else we are
like sisters. I sometimes fear there may indeed be some trouble
preying secretly on her mind. I sometimes feel a little hurt at her
incomprehensible silence."

Captain Helding was ready with his own practical remedy for this
difficulty.

"Encouragement is all she wants, ma'am. Take my word for it, this
matter rests entirely with you. It's all in a nutshell. Encourage her to
confide in you--and she _will_ confide."

"I am waiting to encourage her, captain, until she is left alone with
me--after you have all sailed for the Arctic seas. In the meantime, will
you consider what I have said to you as intended for your ear only? And
will you forgive me, if I own that the turn the subject has taken does
not tempt me to pursue it any further?"

The captain took the hint. He instantly changed the s