ctly informed as to his professional
position. The capacity which had raised him to fame and fortune was
his capacity (unrivalled among his brethren) for the discovery of
remote disease.

'I am at your disposal,' he answered. 'Let me try if I can find out
what is the matter with you.'

He put his medical questions. They were promptly and plainly answered;
and they led to no other conclusion than that the strange lady was,
mentally and physically, in excellent health. Not satisfied with
questions, he carefully examined the great organs of life. Neither his
hand nor his stethoscope could discover anything that was amiss. With
the admirable patience and devotion to his art which had distinguished
him from the time when he was a student, he still subjected her to one
test after another. The result was always the same. Not only was
there no tendency to brain disease--there was not even a perceptible
derangement of the nervous system. 'I can find nothing the matter with
you,' he said. 'I can't even account for the extraordinary pallor of
your complexion. You completely puzzle me.'

'The pallor of my complexion is nothing,' she answered a little
impatiently. 'In my early life I had a narrow escape from death by
poisoning. I have never had a complexion since--and my skin is so
delicate, I cannot paint without producing a hideous rash. But that is
of no importance. I wanted your opinion given positively. I believed
in you, and you have disappointed me.' Her head dropped on her breast.
'And so it ends!' she said to herself bitterly.

The Doctor's sympathies were touched. Perhaps it might be more correct
to say that his professional pride was a little hurt. 'It may end in
the right way yet,' he remarked, 'if you choose to help me.'

She looked up again with flashing eyes, 'Speak plainly,' she said.
'How can I help you?'

'Plainly, madam, you come to me as an enigma, and you leave me to make
the right guess by the unaided efforts of my art. My art will do much,
but not all. For example, something must have occurred--something
quite unconnected with the state of your bodily health--to frighten you
about yourself, or you would never have come here to consult me. Is
that true?'

She clasped her hands in her lap. 'That is true!' she said eagerly.
'I begin to believe in you again.'

'Very well. You can't expect me to find out the moral cause which has
alarmed you. I can positively discover that there is no physical cause
of a