"You know that I am as happily married as a man can be;" the speaker started afresh. "No husband ever had a better, a dearer, or a fonder wife--but she has never thought of inquiring into the secret of that locked drawer upstairs,--and though I shall tell it her some day, I haven't yet. It sticks in my throat, and I have put off and put off--but, anyhow, you shall hear.... I went to the party I was telling you about, and--and _she_ was there. A colonel's daughter, and no great lady--as I was at the pains to find out afterwards. Her family was not much better than my own, and upon that I built my hopes--for we think much of family in Scotland. But hopes? I don't know that they could be called 'hopes'. I was stunned, bewildered. She was the loveliest creature I had ever seen, and Tommy"--he leaned forward, his hands clasping the chair arms on either side--"many women as I've seen since, I have never yet seen her like.... Such eyes, such a brow, such a dazzling fair skin--the curved oval of her cheek--huts! I maunder.... She was amused by my adoration, Tommy; I don't know that it even flattered her, she was so accustomed to it--and I fear, I fear she felt no pity.... At any rate I was permitted to come to the house--for I fought and struggled till I obtained an entrance,--and even what I saw there did not open my eyes. I was doing well at college, you see; oh, I had better speak out, I did a deal better than ever _you_ did, my lad, and carried off honours which at that time seemed high enough to promise anything. I saw myself at the head of my profession, with money, position, perhaps a title--and thought if she would only wait? Had she shown, were it ever so cruelly, her real sentiments, I might have groaned beneath the knife, but the wound would have healed swiftly, as wounds do at that age--but she kept me dangling on through long months of torture, worn to skin and bone,"--he broke off abruptly, paced the room, and stood for a moment at the window with his back turned, then resumed:-- "When my sick jealousy became too apparent, she applied an opiate. A few kind words or looks, an enchanting smile, and the poor, infatuated fool was as mad as ever. We used to walk in Princes Street Gardens--I can smell the spring flowers there now." Another pause. "You can guess the rest, I suppose?" With an effort the speaker heaved himself upright, and a grimmer expression overcast his features. "It was all a delusion--all. There never had been anything on her side--never. Oh, she was sorry, _so_ sorry, but really she could not blame herself. My boy, I was made to feel I was the dirt of the earth beneath her feet.... Heigho! I got over it, Tommy--in time. Not for a long, long time; not till years had come and gone." Another pause. "Those years are what I would fain save you from," said Dr. Craig, slowly.