"Now I want some advice from all this household," he said earnestly, and I thought to change the subject; "it's about the farm I 've hired and the experiment with it. Give it fully, each of you, and, like every other man, I suppose I shall take what agrees with my own way of looking at it. My plans were so indefinite when I wrote to you to hire it, Gordon, that I went into no detail; and I 'm not at all sure that they are so clear to me now. Here 's where I want help." "That's not like you, John; what's up?" said his friend. "I want to start the thing right, and I 'm going to tell you just how I 'm placed; a deuce of a fix it is too." Cale put on a log and left the room, saying good-night as he passed out. I gathered up my sewing--I was hemming some napkins--and made a motion to follow him. The Doctor rose. "Marcia,"--he put out a hand as if to detain me; he spoke peremptorily,--"come back. There are no secrets among us, and I want you to advise with." There seemed nothing to do but to obey, and I was perfectly willing to, because I wanted to hear all and everything about the farm project that threatened to break up my pleasant life in the manor. I took up my work again. "Put down your work, Marcia; fold your hands and listen to me. I want your whole attention." I obeyed promptly. Jamie gleefully rubbed his hands. "It takes you, Doctor, to make Marcia mind." "I 'm a man of years, Boy," the Doctor retorted, thereby reducing Jamie to silence. We sat expectant; but evidently the Doctor was in no hurry to open up his subject. After a few minutes of deep thought, he spoke slowly, almost as if to himself: "I'm wondering where to begin, what to take hold of first. The ordering of life is beyond all science--we 've found that out, we so-called 'men of science'. The truth is, I believe I have a 'conscience fund' in the bank and on my mind. I know I am speaking blindly, and perhaps reasoning blindly, and it's because I want you to see things for me more clearly than I do, and through a different medium, that I am going to tell you, as concisely as I can--and without mentioning names--of an experience I had more than a quarter of a century ago. I 've had several of the kind since, they are common in our profession--but the result of this special experience is unique." He paused, continuing to look steadfastly into the fire. In the silence we heard the sweep of the wind through the woods, now and then the scraping swish of a pine branch brushing the roof beneath it. "I recall that it was in December. I was twenty-nine, and had just got a foothold on the first round of the professional ladder. Near midnight I was called to go down into one of the slum districts--I don't intend to mention names--of New York. There in a basement, I found a woman who had just been rescued from suicide." He paused, still keeping his gaze fixed intently on the fire. And I?