“Oh, she will soon be better--much better!” encouragingly exclaimed the doctor. “A slight delirium of this kind is easily brought on by excitement; but it is only temporary. There is no organic disease whatever. We shall not have the least occasion to think of removing her to _my establishment_,--not the least. Mrs. Lupton is constitutionally very sensitive; but she is not a subject in any way predisposed to mental affliction. The course of my practice has led me to make perhaps a greater amount of observation on diseases of this peculiar description than could be found amongst all the other medical men in England put together. I do not hesitate at all to state that, because I _know it_ to be the fact; and I have invariably remarked, that amongst the great majority of insane persons that have been under my care, and no practitioner could have had more, there is a peculiarity,--a difference,--an organic something or other, which,--I am as much convinced of as of my own existence,--might have been perceptible to a clever man at the period of their very earliest mental development, and which marked them out, if I may so say, to become at one period or other of their lives inmates of such establishments as this extensive one of mine at Nabbfield. But the good lady of this house has nothing whatever of that kind about her. I pronounce her to be one of the very last persons who could require, for permanent mental affections, the care, restraint, and assiduous attentions, only to be obtained in a retreat where the medical adviser is himself a permanent resident. The course of treatment I am adopting will soon bring her about again,--very soon. But I must beg you will be so kind as to take care that she is kept quiet, and--and prevent her as much as possible from conversing on painful or exciting subjects,” concluded the doctor, smiling very sweetly as he looked into Miss Shirley's eyes and profoundly bowed her a good night. “That fellow is a quack,” thought Miss Shirley, as she returned to Mrs. Lupton's chamber. “There is, as he says, _an organic something_ about _him_ that renders him very repulsive to me; and, if nothing worse come of him than we have had to-night, it will be a great deal more than his appearance promises.” Thus thinking, she threw herself into an easy-chair by her friend's bedside, and remained watching her attentively through the night. However much of a quack the doctor might be, his opinion respecting Mrs. Lupton's recovery proved to be correct. In the course of a few weeks she might have been seen, as formerly, for hours together, with slow steps, and a deep-seated expression of melancholy, pacing the gardens and woods of Kiddal, regardless almost of times and seasons. Though now perfectly recovered, her recent illness formed a very plausible pretext on which to found reasons for hastening her again away from her home; for that she was an unwelcome tenant there will readily be believed from the facts already related.