ent
becomes difficult or impossible. They assure us that a man who has had a
given thing within his reach and put it by, will, as soon as it is
beyond his reach, find it the one thing necessary and desirable; even as
the domestic cat which has turned disdainfully from the preferred
saucer, may presently be seen with her head jammed hard in the milk-jug,
or, secretly and with horrible relish, slaking her thirst at the
scullery sink.

To this peculiarity of the human mind was due, no doubt, the fact that
no sooner had I abandoned the clinical side of my profession in favour
of the legal, and taken up my abode in the chambers of my friend
Thorndyke, the famous medico-legal expert, to act as his assistant or
junior, than my former mode of life--that of a locum tenens, or minder
of other men's practices--which had, when I was following it, seemed
intolerably irksome, now appeared to possess many desirable features;
and I found myself occasionally hankering to sit once more by the
bedside, to puzzle out the perplexing train of symptoms, and to wield
that power--the greatest, after all, possessed by man--the power to
banish suffering and ward off the approach of death itself.

Hence it was that on a certain morning of the long vacation I found
myself installed at The Larches, Burling, in full charge of the practice
of my old friend Dr. Hanshaw, who was taking a fishing holiday in
Norway. I was not left desolate, however, for Mrs. Hanshaw remained at
her post, and the roomy, old-fashioned house accommodated three visitors
in addition. One of these was Dr. Hanshaw's sister, a Mrs. Haldean, the
widow of a wealthy Manchester cotton factor; the second was her niece by
marriage, Miss Lucy Haldean, a very handsome and charming girl of
twenty-three; while the third was no less a person than Master Fred, the
only child of Mrs. Haldean, and a strapping boy of six.

"It is quite like old times--and very pleasant old times, too--to see
you sitting at our breakfast-table, Dr. Jervis." With these gracious
words and a friendly smile, Mrs. Hanshaw handed me my tea-cup.

I bowed. "The highest pleasure of the altruist," I replied, "is in
contemplating the good fortune of others."

Mrs. Haldean laughed. "Thank you," she said. "You are quite unchanged, I
perceive. Still as suave and as--shall I say oleaginous?"

"No, please don't!" I exclaimed in a tone of alarm.

"Then I won't. But what does Dr. Thorndyke say to this backsliding on
your