"I have read some of their literature," said Sir James, "and I have heard about some of their cures. Now, as a doctor, I can't recommend your employing Mr. Cochrane, but you can, if you choose, send him a telegram acquainting him with the state of affairs. You see, I don't think he can hurt your brother, and we doctors can't benefit him." "Am I to get Mr. Cochrane to come here, then?" asked Maud. "No; in the first place it is a good deal to ask, and in the second, if only you or Lady Thurso could persuade Lord Thurso to go, I am convinced that a sea-voyage, though it will not in the smallest degree cure him, will be generally beneficial. Now, do you think it is in your power to persuade him to go? You needn't say anything about a Christian Science healer waiting for him at the other end; there will be plenty of time for that when you get him on board ship." Maud thought over this. There was a suggestion that she felt she had better make, which was rather difficult for her to put to him. "Yes; I think I might be able to persuade him," she said, "because certainly he used often to listen to me when he would listen to no one else. And would you think it odd if I suggested that he and I went alone, without Lady Thurso?" "I should have suggested it if you had not," said the doctor. "But tell me why you did." "Ah! poor Thurso is mad," said she. "He is not in the least himself. But ever since the summer he has been behaving to Catherine as if he hated her." The doctor nodded. "I know; she feels that, too. Now, you cannot see your brother to-day, but to-morrow, if he goes on well, I think you might. We shall see. I shall be back early to-morrow to look at him." For a man who had passed through so dangerous an attack, weakened, too, as he was, by months of the opium habit, Thurso showed extraordinary recuperative power, and next day he asked of his own accord whether Maud might come and see him. This Sir James at once allowed. "I will let her know when I go," he said. "It will do you good." He waited for a moment, but Thurso said nothing about wishing to see Catherine, and shortly after the doctor left him, and told Maud she might pay him a short visit. The nurse was with him when Maud entered, but went to her room next door, leaving brother and sister alone. He was still lying flat, without pillows, but he smiled a welcome at Maud when she came in. "Come close, Maud," he said in a minute. "I want to talk to you." His voice was still no more than a whisper from weakness, but his words were quite audible. "I don't want to see Catherine," he said, "and you must keep her away from me. I think the sight of her would send me off my head. It's she who has brought me to this. It was she who ruined my nerves by always rushing and flying about in every direction----" Maud interrupted him gently. "Ah! never mind that," she said. "At present all you have to do is to lie quiet, and not worry about anything, and get well."