"I am afraid the mischief is already done, Alick, and that its results will be apparent long before Dr. Wilmot can reach here," said Lady Muriel. "However, let us sleep upon it. I am sure to hear whether the news has spread in the house long before breakfast, and we can consult again." And Lady Muriel took leave of her husband, and retired to her room. Trust a woman for observation. Lady Muriel was perfectly right. The nods and shoulder-shrugs and whisperings which she had observed in the drawing-room had already borne fruit. On her return to her own room she saw a little note lying on her table--a little note which, as she learned from Pinner, her attendant, had just been brought by Lady Fairfax's maid. It ran thus: "DEAREST LADY MURIEL,--A _frightful_ attack of neuralgia (_my_ neuralgia)--which, as you know, is so _awful_--has been hanging over me for the last three days, and now has come upon me in its _fullest force_. I am quite out of my mind with it. I have striven--O, how I have striven!--to keep up and try to forget it, when surrounded by your pleasant circle, and when looking at your _dear self_. But it is all in vain. I am in _agonies_. The torture of the rack itself can be _nothing_ to what I am suffering tonight. "Poor dear Sir Benjamin Brodie used to say that I should never be well in a _northern_ climate. I fear he was right. I fear that the air of this darling Kilsyth, earthly Paradise though it is--and I am sure that I have found it so during three weeks of bliss; O, such _happiness!_--is too bracing, too invigorating for poor me. But I should _loathe_ myself if I were to make this an _open_ confession. So I will steal away, dearest Lady Muriel, without making any formal adieux. When all your dear friends assemble at breakfast to-morrow, I shall be on my _sorrowing_ way south, and only regret that my wretched health prevents me longer remaining where I have been so entirely happy. "With kindest regards to your dear husband, I am, dearest Lady Muriel, ever your loving "EMILY FAIRFAX. "P.S.--I have told my maid to beg some of your people to get me horses from the Kilsyth Arms; so that I shall _speed_ away early in the morning without disturbing any one. I hope dear Madeleine will soon be _quite herself_ again."