Entering the parlor Doctor Stedman found Mrs. Tree sitting by the fire as usual, with her feet on the fender. Sitting, but not attired, as usual. She was dressed, or rather enveloped, in a vast quilted wrapper of flowered satin, tulips and poppies on a pale buff ground, and her head was surmounted by the most astonishing nightcap that ever the mind of woman devised. So ample and manifold were its flapping borders, and so small the keen brown face under them, that Doctor Stedman, though not an imaginative person, could think of nothing but a walnut set in the centre of a cauliflower. "Good afternoon, James Stedman!" said the old lady. "I am sick, you see." "I see, Mrs. Tree," said the doctor, glancing from the wrapper and cap to the bowl and spoon that stood on the violet-wood table. He had seen these things before. "You don't feel seriously out of trim, I hope?" Mrs. Tree fixed him with a bright black eye. "At my age, James, everything is serious," she said, gravely. "You know that as well as I do." "Yes, I know that!" said Doctor Stedman. He laid his hand on her wrist for a moment, then returned her look with one as keen as her own. "Have you any symptoms for me?" "I thought that was your business!" said the patient. "Hum!" said Doctor Stedman. "How long, have you been--a--feeling like this?" "Ever since yesterday; no, the day before. I am excessively nervous, James. I am unfit to talk, utterly unfit; I cannot see people. I want you to keep people away from me for--for some days. You must see that I am unfit to see anybody!" "Ha!" said Doctor Stedman. "It agitates me!" cried the old lady. "At my age I cannot afford to be agitated. Have some orange cordial, James; do! it is in the Moorish cabinet there, the right-hand cupboard. Yes, you may bring two glasses if you like; I feel a sinking. You see that I am in no condition for visitors." The corners of Doctor Stedman's gray beard twitched; but he poured a small portion of the cordial into two fat little gilt tumblers, and handed one gravely to his patient. [Illustration: "'PERHAPS THIS IS AS GOOD MEDICINE AS YOU CAN TAKE!' HE SAID."] "Perhaps this is as good medicine as you can take!" he said. "Delicious! Does the secret of this die with Direxia? But I'll put you up some powders, Mrs. Tree, for the--a--nervousness; and I certainly think it would be a good plan for you to keep very quiet for awhile." "I'll see no one!" cried the old lady. "Not even Vesta, James!" "Hum!" said Doctor Stedman. "Well, if you say so, not even Vesta." "Vesta is so literal, you see!" said Mrs. Tree, comfortably. "Then that is settled; and you will give your orders to Direxia. I am utterly unfit to talk, and you forbid me to see anybody. How do you think Vesta is looking, James?" Doctor Stedman's eyes, which had been twinkling merrily under his shaggy eyebrows, grew suddenly grave.