‘And was--this--this gentleman a mad doctor, and did you bring him here to examine my husband?’ she inquired with surprise. ‘He was; and I certainly brought him here that he might give me a truthful report on Henry’s condition,’ replied Captain Hindes. ‘How dared you?--how dared you?’ she panted. ‘Why, Hannah, I never thought you would take it like this! I consider that you have somewhat neglected your duty, in not having called in a doctor to him long ago. I think my brother is in a very critical state. Doctor Govan does not, I am glad to say, consider him mad, but he says he will drive himself so if he is not carefully watched in the future. He pronounces him to be suffering from the effects of opium, or some other narcotic, and that he has weakened his brain by its use, and is hardly responsible for his actions. Henry is my brother, you must remember, Hannah, as well as your husband, and it is my duty to look after him. Doctor Govan says that, if we cannot wean him from the habit he has fallen into, he will inevitably kill himself by it. Now, Edith and I have been talking the matter over, and came to the conclusion that we must all act in concert. I am willing to take my wife and family to Switzerland, or any distant place we may agree upon, if you and Henry will join us there, so that I may have him under my own eye, and do my best to restore him to health. You will do your part, I am sure, Hannah, and persuade your husband to consent to this arrangement.’ ‘_I will not!_’ replied Hannah, with closed lips. CHAPTER III. Arthur looked at her in amazement. Was this his gentle sister-in-law? Her very voice seemed changed, and her frame was shaking with her unusual emotion. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘Surely you have Henry’s welfare at heart as much as we have.’ ‘I think I have, Arthur; but I will not attempt to persuade him to go to Switzerland, or any other place, unless it should be alone with me. I have already told you that he cannot bear the noise of children, even that of his own, neither does he care for company. I was sorry and surprised that, knowing his state of health, you should have introduced a stranger at The Old Hall without giving us notice, but now that I find he was a mad doctor, brought here to examine my husband without my leave or cognisance, I think it little short of an insult.’ ‘An insult? Oh! Hannah! that is too hard a word,’ interposed her brother-in-law. ‘I don’t say you meant it so, but at the least it was a piece of great officiousness on your part. How dared you think, or let others think,’ she went on, suddenly flaring up, ‘that my husband--is _mad_? Is that brotherly solicitude? For shame! For shame! Had I known who your _friend_ was, I would have turned him from my door.’ ‘Then there is no chance, I suppose,’ said Arthur, sorrowfully, ‘of persuading you to join your forces to ours, and inducing Henry to go away with us for a change?’