orse, and
occupying my mind with thoughts of the lady whom I had saved, when
suddenly, about three miles from Quebec, I saw a familiar figure
advancing toward me.

It was the doctor!

He moved along slowly, and, as I drew nearer, I saw that he looked very
much worn out, very peevish, and very discontented.

"Well, old man," said I, "how did you find her?"

"Find her?" growled the doctor--"I didn't find her at all. If this is a
hoax," he continued, "all I can say, Macrorie, is this, that it's a
devilish stupid one."

"A hoax? What--didn't find her?" I gasped.

"Find her? Of course not. There's no such a person. Why, I could not
even find the house."

"What--do you mean? I--I don't understand--" I faltered.

"Why," said the doctor, who saw my deep distress and disappointment, "I
mean simply this: I've been riding about this infernal country all day,
been to Montmorency, called at fifty houses, and couldn't find anybody
that knew any thing at all about any lady whatever."

At this, my consternation was so great that I couldn't say one single
word. This news almost took my breath away. The doctor looked sternly
at me for some time, and then was about to more on.

This roused me.

"What!" I cried; "you're not thinking of going back?"

"Back? Of course, I am. That's the very thing I'm going to do."

"For God's sake, doctor," I cried, earnestly, "don't go just yet! I
tell you, the lady is there, and her condition is a most perilous one.
I told you before how I saved her, I left there at midnight, last
night, in spite of my fatigue, and travelled all night to get you. I
promised her that you would be there early this morning. It's now
nearly two in the afternoon. Good Heavens! doctor, you won't leave a
fellow in such a fix?"

"Macrorie," said the doctor, "I'm half dead with fatigue. I did it for
your sake, and I wouldn't have done it for another soul--no, not even
for Jack Randolph. So be considerate, my boy."

"Doctor," I cried, earnestly, "it's a case of life and death!"

A long altercation now followed; but the end of it was that the doctor
yielded, and, in spite of his fatigue, turned back, grumbling and
growling.

So we rode back together--the doctor, groaning and making peevish
remarks; I, oblivious of all this, and careless of my friend's
discomfort. My mind was full of visions of the lady--the fair unknown.
I was exceeding anxious and troubled at the thought that all this time
she had been alone,