"This chafing of thousands of competitive designs," said the visitor, "this great fretwork of cross purposes, is a decided change from the quiet order of our rural life. Hmm! There everything is under the administration of one undisputed will, and is executed by the unquestioning obedience of our happy and contented slave peasantry. I prefer the country. But I thought this was just the change that would arouse and electrify an invalid who has really no tangible complaint." "Has the result been unsatisfactory?" "Entirely so. I am unexpectedly disappointed." The speaker's thought seemed to be that the climate of New Orleans had not responded with that hospitable alacrity which was due so opulent, reasonable, and universally obeyed a guest. There was a pause here, and Dr. Sevier looked around at the book which lay at his elbow. But the visitor did not resume, and the Doctor presently asked:-- "Do you wish me to see your wife?" "I called to see you alone first," said the other, "because there might be questions to be asked which were better answered in her absence." "Then you think you know the secret of her illness, do you?" "I do. I think, indeed I may say I know, it is--bereavement." The Doctor compressed his lips and bowed. The stranger drooped his head somewhat, and, resting his elbows on the arms of his chair, laid the tips of his thumbs and fingers softly together. "The truth is, sir, she cannot recover from the loss of our son." "An infant?" asked the Doctor. His bell rang again as he put the question. "No, sir; a young man,--one whom I had thought a person of great promise; just about to enter life." "When did he die?" "He has been dead nearly a year. I"-- The speaker ceased as the mulatto waiting-man appeared at the open door, with a large, simple, German face looking easily over his head from behind. "Toctor," said the owner of this face, lifting an immense open hand, "Toctor, uf you bleace, Toctor, you vill bleace ugscooce me." The Doctor frowned at the servant for permitting the interruption. But the gentleman beside him said:-- "Let him come in, sir; he seems to be in haste, sir, and I am not,--I am not, at all." "Come in," said the physician. The new-comer stepped into the room. He was about six feet three inches in height, three feet six in breadth, and the same in thickness. Two kindly blue eyes shone softly in an expanse of face that had been clean-shaven every Saturday night for many years, and that ended in a retreating chin and a dewlap. The limp, white shirt-collar just below was without a necktie, and the waist of his pantaloons, which seemed intended to supply this deficiency, did not quite, but only almost reached up to the unoccupied blank. He removed from his respectful head a soft gray hat, whitened here and there with flour. "Yentlemen," he said, slowly, "you vill ugscooce me to interruptet you,--yentlemen." "Do you wish to see me?" asked Dr. Sevier.