a creature exceptional to
the ordinary conditions of humanity. Would the most reckless of mortals
have ventured to bring against the worst of characters such a charge,
on the authority of a deceased witness, and to found on evidence so
fantastic the awful accusation of murder? But of all men, certainly I--a
sober, practical physician--was the last whom the public could excuse
for such incredible implications; and certainly, of all men, the last
against whom any suspicion of heinous crime would be readily entertained
was that joyous youth in whose sunny aspect life and conscience alike
seemed to keep careless holiday. But I could not overcome, nor did I
attempt to reason against, the horror akin to detestation, that had
succeeded to the fascinating attraction by which Margrave had before
conciliated a liking founded rather on admiration than esteem.

In order to avoid his visits I kept away from the study in which I had
habitually spent my mornings, and to which he had been accustomed to
so ready an access; and if he called at the front door, I directed
my servant to tell him that I was either from home or engaged. He
did attempt for the first few days to visit me as before, but when my
intention to shun him became thus manifest, desisted naturally enough,
as any other man so pointedly repelled would have done.

I abstained from all those houses in which I was likely to meet him,
and went my professional round of visits in a close carriage, so that I
might not be accosted by him in his walks.

One morning, a very few days after Strahan had shown me Sir Philip
Derval's letter, I received a note from my old college acquaintance,
stating that he was going to Derval Court that afternoon; that he should
take with him the memoir which he had found, and begging me to visit
him at his new home the next day, and commence my inspection of the
manuscript. I consented eagerly.

That morning, on going my round, my carriage passed by another drawn up
to the pavement, and I recognized the figure of Margrave standing beside
the vehicle, and talking to some one seated within it. I looked back,
as my own carriage whirled rapidly by, and saw with uneasiness and
alarm that it was Richard Strahan to whom Margrave was thus familiarly
addressing himself. How had the two made acquaintance?

Was it not an outrage on Sir Philip Derval's memory, that the heir he
had selected should be thus apparently intimate with the man whom he had
so stern