"There was not much in the letter," he said, in confidential tones. "No harm would have come of it but for Edmund North's frightful access of passion. If he dies, mind,"--the doctor added this in a dreamy tone, gazing out as if looking into the future--"if he dies, it will not be the letter that has killed him, but his own want of self-control." "Don't talk of dying, doctor. It is to be hoped it won't come to that." "It is, indeed." "And Mr. Richard was not at home, the girl said!" "Neither he nor Captain Bohun. Richard has just come in now." Mrs. Gass would fain have kept him longer, but he told her the sick man Ketler was waiting for him. This man was one of the North workmen, who had been terribly injured in the arm; Dr. Rane hoped to save both arm and life. "That receipt for the rhubarb jam Mrs. Cumberland promised: is it ever coming?" asked Mrs. Gass as Dr. Rane was quitting the room. Turning back, he put his hat on the table and took out his pocketbook. Mrs. Cumberland had sent it at last. He selected the paper from amongst several others and handed it to her. "I forgot to leave it when I was here this morning, Mrs. Gass. My mother gave it me yesterday." Between them they dropped the receipt. Both stooped for it, and their heads came together. There was a slight laugh; in the midst of which the pocketbook fell on the carpet. Some papers fluttered out of it, which the doctor picked up and replaced. "Have you got them all, doctor? How is the young lady's cold?" "What young lady's?" he questioned. "Miss Adair's." "I did not know she had one." "Ah, them lovely girls with their bright faces never show their ailments; and she is lovely, if ever one was lovely in this terrestial world. Goodnight to you, doctor; you're in a mortal hurry." He strode to the street-door and it closed sharply after him. Mrs. Gass looked out of her parlour and saw the same smart maid hastening along the passage: a little too late. "Drat it, wench! is that the way you let gentlefolk show themselves out?--scuttering to the door when they've got clean away from it. D'you call that manners?" CHAPTER II. ELLEN ADAIR. The day promised to be as warm as the preceding one. The night and morning mists were gone; the sun shone hot and bright. Summer seemed to have come in before its time.