inquired the novelist.

"No--only in Pimlico. He lives in Vauxhall Bridge Road, and his practice
lies within a radius of half a mile of Victoria Station."

"And why is he my enemy?"

"Oh, that I cannot tell."

"Why is he your stepfather's friend?" asked Fetherston. "They certainly
seem to be on very good terms."

"Doctor Weirmarsh's cunning and ingenuity are unequalled," she declared.
"Over me, as over Sir Hugh, he has cast a kind of spell--a----"

Her companion laughed. "My dear Enid," he said, "spells are fictions of
the past; nobody believes in them nowadays. He may possess some influence
over you, but surely you are sufficiently strong-minded to resist his
power, whatever it may be?"

"No," she replied, "I am not. For that reason I fear for myself--and for
Sir Hugh. That man compelled Sir Hugh to take me to him for a
consultation, and as soon as I was in his presence I knew that his will
was mine--that I was powerless."

"I don't understand you," said Fetherston, much interested in this latest
psychic problem.

"Neither do I understand myself," she answered in bewilderment. "To me
this man's power, fascination--whatever you may term it--is a complete
mystery."

"I will investigate it," said Fetherston promptly. "What is his address?"

She told him, and he scribbled it upon his shirt-cuff. Then, looking into
her beautiful countenance, he asked: "Have you no idea of the nature of
this man's influence over Sir Hugh?"

"None whatever. It is plain, however, that he is master over my
stepfather's actions. My mother has often remarked to me upon it," was
her response. "He comes here constantly, and remains for hours closeted
with Sir Hugh in his study. So great is his influence that he orders our
servants to do his bidding."

"And he compelled Sir Hugh to take you to his consulting room, eh? Under
what pretext?"

"I was suffering from extreme nervousness, and he prescribed for me with
beneficial effect," she said. "But ever since I have felt myself beneath
his influence in a manner which I am utterly unable to describe. I do not
believe in hypnotic suggestion, or it might be put down to that."

"But what is your theory?"

"I have none, except--well, except that this man, essentially a man of
evil, possesses some occult influence which other men do not possess."

"Yours is not a weak nature, Enid," he declared. "You are not the sort of
girl to fall beneath the influence of another."

"I think not," sh