Master Of His Fate by J. MACLAREN COBBAN 1890 Contents. Chapter I. Julius Courtney II. A Mysterious Case III. "M. Dolaro" IV. The Man of the Crowd V. The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary Fane VI. At The Bedside of the Doctor VII. Contains a Love Interlude VIII. Strange Scenes in Curzon Street IX. An Apparition And a Confession To Z. Mennell, Esq. My dear Mennell, It has been my fortune to see something of the practice of the art of healing under widely different conditions, and I know none who better represents the most humane and most exacting of all professions than yourself. The good doctor of this story--the born surgeon and healer, the ever young and alert, the self-forgetful, the faithful friend, gifted with "that exquisite charity which can forgive all things"--is studied from you. It is one of the greatest pleasures of my life to inscribe your name on this dedicatory page, and to subscribe myself, Your sincere friend and grateful patient, J. Maclaren Cobban. London, November 1889. Chapter I. Julius Courtney. The Hyacinth Club has the reputation of selecting its members from among the freshest and most active spirits in literature, science, and art. That is in a sense true, but activity in one or another of those fields is not a condition of membership; for, just as the listening Boswell was the necessary complement of the talking Johnson, so in the Hyacinth Club there is an indispensable contingent of passive members who find their liveliest satisfaction in hearing and looking on, rather than in speaking and doing. Something of the home principle of male and female is necessary for the completeness even of a club.