"Then as your medical attendant, called in upon this emergency by my friend, Lady Tilborough, it is my duty to tell you that you gave me your word that you would be calm if I allowed you to return." "Yes," said the suffering woman, bitterly. "I promised because I could not bear to stay longer in that hateful woman's house." "It seemed to me, madam, that the lady whom you so wrong, behaved in a very loving and sisterly way to you in an emergency." "Yes; brought about by her machinations." "Oh, dear!" sighed Lady Tilborough. "What an unreasonable darling it is! Machinations! Why, I only asked a dear old friend to help me and save me from ruin, and he responded nobly." "Ruin? You helped to ruin him by luring him back to the diabolical horrors of the Turf." "There, there, my dear; I won't argue with you, certainly not quarrel. Pray, pray try and calm yourself, or you'll be having another of those terrible hysterical fits." "Yes," said Granton, "and worse than the last." "I am glad. It will be my last. Infamous woman, why did you drag me to your house?" "Because, my dear, I didn't like to see a lady in your position ill and suffering in such a place as the Tilborough Arms." "And because, my dear madam, when I found how bad you were I begged Lady Tilborough to save you from a long hour's drive home when your coachman was not to be found." "But you lured my husband away, woman." "Well, I have confessed to that, my dear madam, and I am sorry that you should look upon it with different eyes from mine. I don't think I have been such a terrible sinner, do you, doctor?" she added, with a look which made the gentleman addressed flutter as regarded his nerves. But he had the medical man's command over self, and he said quietly: "I think when Lady Lisle has grown calmer she will look a little more leniently upon her neighbour's actions. Now, pray, my dear madam, let me beg of you to--Ah! that's better. Don't try to restrain your tears. They are the greatest anodyne for an overwrought mind. Now, remember your promise. Let me ring for your maid. A cup of tea and a good long sleep, and the racing escapade will wear a different aspect by the light of noon." "Oh, doctor, doctor!" sobbed the poor woman, passionately, as she yielded to Granton's pressure, and sank into a lounge; "you do not know--you do not know!" "Yes, yes, yes, I know; but pray think. I grant that racing is gambling, but I really believe my dear old friend Hilton Lisle will for the future yield to your wishes and fight shy--I beg your pardon-- religiously abstain from attending Turf meetings." "Oh, oh, oh, doctor!" sobbed the patient, who was at her weakest in the weakest hour of the twenty-four. "You do not know all. I could have forgiven that; but when I discovered the base disloyalty of the man in whom I had always the most perfect faith--" "Dear me! Ahem!" coughed the doctor. "I--" and he glanced at Lady Tilborough.