"Bad—very bad," was the answer; "hardly could be worse." They were talking in the library. The doctor closed the door carefully, returned to the table, stood a minute in silence, and then broke out: "Ferrand, I do think you have been utterly insane to let that girl be driven so. What were you thinking of? Couldn't you see with your own eyes how it was affecting her? Why, she tells me she has been practising music six hours a day for the last four weeks; and such tasks in school! That Sampson must be a mule. I wish I had the arrangement of his hair." "We wished our daughter to make the most of her advantages," Mr. Ferrand began, but his friend interrupted him: "Advantages! Yes, fine advantages for working her utter ruin. Can't you see what ails the girl?" And he uttered a word which sent a terrible thrill to Mr. Ferrand's heart. But he was too well entrenched in his own conceit to give up so easily: "I cannot but hope you may be mistaken, Henry." "Don't you think I know my own business? I have seen hundreds of such cases." "Yet you might be mistaken perhaps the more for that very reason," said Mr. Ferrand. "I have heard that physicians are apt to see their pet diseases in all their patients. I do not think Isabella has been overtasked. I have not wished her to be so, neither do I desire to see her a dunce." "Would you rather see her a dunce or an idiot?" demanded the doctor, irritably. "For one or the other she must be. I tell you, Ferrand, as sure as you are born, the girl has epileptic seizures. She has had two at my house, and Miss Thurston says she had one when she first came here—clearly marked epilepsy, and that of the worst kind. The fits are slight as yet, and it is just possible that with an entire change of air and scene, entire freedom from mental excitement, and cheerful companionship of her own age, the mischief may go no farther. Why, I should think you would have observed it yourself." "I am not familiar with the symptoms," said Mr. Ferrand. "Can you describe them to me?" Dr. Douglass gave the particulars, and Mr. Ferrand considered. "I will not deny that I have noticed something like what you describe in Isa, but I thought it only one of those awkward tricks that girls are apt to pick up. Douglass, don't be hard upon me," said the poor father. "Indeed, I have meant to act for the best. Are you sure?" "As sure as that I stand here. As I said, the attacks are slight at present, but they are none the less to be dreaded. Has Morton seen her? He is a man of sense." "Never since last spring, when she had an attack of fever and headache. He said then that she should be taken out of school, but I thought I traced the attack to some improper habits of eating, and I felt desirous to have her finish the school-year." "Another school-year like the last will finish her," said Doctor Douglass.