I was rather late in leaving the hospital that afternoon, and when I reached home my boy told me that several patients were already waiting for me. I hurried into my office and sat down at my desk, on which a number of letters had accumulated. I was looking these over when I heard the door open, and, glancing up, my eyes fell upon--Argot! I stared at him for a moment in silence. Could this reserved and highly respectable person be my visitor of the night before? Never, I concluded. He stood respectfully near the door, till I motioned him to a seat. He sat gingerly down on the very edge of the chair, and, laying his hat on my desk, pulled out a handkerchief and mopped his forehead. I waited for him to begin, which he seemed to find some difficulty in doing. At last he said: "Meestair, I come about a verra sad zing." "Yes?" I inquired. "You 'ave seen my vife?" I did not answer at once; then, as I was uncertain how much he knew, I decided that it would be safest to confine myself to a bare nod. "She is a verra fine woman, not?" he demanded, with visible pride. "Very much so," I assented. What could he be leading up to, I wondered? "But, helas," he continued, "she is a little--" here he touched his forehead significantly, while he gazed at me less keenly from under his bushy brows. "Really, you surprise me," was all I said. "She quite wild some time," he insisted. "Indeed?" "Yes; she do some strange zings; she verra good vife--sough--verra good cook." He paused. "What are you telling me all this for? What do you want me to do about it?" I inquired. "Eh bien, Meestair; it is because she vant to come to see you, and she like you to be sorry, so she 'ave t'rowed herself down and 'ave 'urt 'erself. She lika ze mens too much," he added, fiercely, while a malignant expression flitted across his face. It no longer seemed to me impossible that this middle-aged butler and the apparition of the night before could be identical, and there and then I determined that in future a pistol should repose in the top drawer of my desk. "Perhaps your wife is slightly hysterical," I suggested.