leaving the room she called
to him, asking when he would give her another lecture on pantheism.

"I fear if I do I shall have to suffer for the sin of corrupting the
heart of a Puritan," said the Doctor.

"A Puritan is always fortified against Satan's wiles," she answered
laughingly, as she stopped in the doorway, "and, besides, my
grandfathers, for six generations, were ministers."

"A case of the transmission of the original sin, I suppose," answered
the Doctor, as she retired through the door. "And how is my patient
to-day?" he repeated, as Florence's laughter died away and her steps
were heard hurrying up the stairs.

"I don't think I am a bit better," said Marion somewhat mournfully,
having relapsed into her former state in the presence of the Doctor.
After adjusting the cloth on her aching head, she continued: "I have no
animation or ambition; I have these frightful nervous pains and
headaches; my appetite is all gone; nothing seems to amuse me any more,
and I lie here all day long feeling utterly wretched. In the evening I
manage to develop animation enough to take me out, and, for a while, I
forget myself, but when it is over I feel worse than ever. Oh, Doctor,
what is the matter with me?"

Dr. Maccanfrae looked at Marion a moment as though hesitating to answer
her question, then, feeling her pulse, he replied: "Mrs. Sanderson,
there is nothing the matter with you."

"What do you mean, Doctor?" said Marion somewhat angrily. "Do you
suppose I don't know how I feel?"

"When I say there is nothing the matter with you, I mean you have no
organic disease. You are simply suffering from the fashionable complaint
of nervous depression, or neurasthenia, as we physicians call it. Almost
every woman in your station in life has it sooner or later. It is
nothing but a symptom, but it may grow into a great many worse things."

"Well, why don't you cure me then, if it is nothing?" remarked Marion in
a provoked manner.

The Doctor looked at her a moment; then he asked slowly, but with an
emphasis which seemed to carry a hidden meaning: "Do you want to get
well, Mrs. Sanderson?"

Marion looked up somewhat startled. "Why do you ask such a question?"
she replied.

"Because you produced the disease yourself, and you alone can cure it."

"You are positively rude, Doctor."

"I know I should ask pardon for my brusqueness, but I am your physician,
and I desire to see you well again. The only way that can be
accomplish