rate the gloom of his house,
and when they did so it was with deaf ear turned to sundry ghoulish
stories that were whispered concerning him. These were, in great part,
but exaggerations of his experiments in vivisection; he was devoted to
the science of surgery.

The young man who presented himself on the morning just mentioned was a
handsome fellow, yet of evident weak character and unhealthy
temperament--sensitive, and easily exalted or depressed. A single
glance convinced the surgeon that his visitor was seriously affected in
mind, for there was never bolder skull-grin of melancholia, fixed and
irremediable.

A stranger would not have suspected any occupancy of the house. The
street door--old, warped, and blistered by the sun--was locked, and the
small, faded-green window-blinds were closed. The young man rapped at
the door. No answer. He rapped again. Still no sign. He examined a slip
of paper, glanced at the number on the house, and then, with the
impatience of a child, he furiously kicked the door. There were signs
of numerous other such kicks. A response came in the shape of a
shuffling footstep in the hall, a turning of the rusty key, and a sharp
face that peered through a cautious opening in the door.

"Are you the doctor?" asked the young man.

"Yes, yes! Come in," briskly replied the master of the house.

The young man entered. The old surgeon closed the door and carefully
locked it. "This way," he said, advancing to a rickety flight of
stairs. The young man followed. The surgeon led the way up the stairs,
turned into a narrow, musty-smelling corridor at the left, traversed
it, rattling the loose boards under his feet, at the farther end opened
a door at the right, and beckoned his visitor to enter. The young man
found himself in a pleasant room, furnished in antique fashion and with
hard simplicity.

"Sit down," said the old man, placing a chair so that its occupant
should face a window that looked out upon a dead wall about six feet
from the house. He threw open the blind, and a pale light entered. He
then seated himself near his visitor and directly facing him, and with
a searching look, that had all the power of a microscope, he proceeded
to diagnosticate the case.

"Well?" he presently asked.

The young man shifted uneasily in his seat.

"I--I have come to see you," he finally stammered, "because I'm in
trouble."

"Ah!"

"Yes; you see, I--that is--I have given it up."

"Ah!" There was pi