When I received this note early on Tuesday morning, I at once made arrangements for a short absence. Now that duty, and not inclination alone, called me elsewhere, I had no scruples about leaving New York; and when, a few hours later, after visiting my most urgent cases, I found myself on a train bound for Beverley, I blessed Fred's leg, which had procured me this unexpected little holiday. What a relief it was to leave the dust and the noise of the city behind, and to feast my eyes once more on the sight of fields and trees. On arriving at my destination, I drove immediately to the Cowper's cottage. I found Fred in bed, with his leg a good deal swollen. His anxiety to go to the Derwents had tempted him to use it before it was sufficiently strong; consequently, he had strained it, and would now be laid up with it for some time longer. "Well, Charley," he said, when I had finished replacing the bandages, "I don't suppose you are very sorry to be in this part of the world, eh? My leg did you a good turn, didn't it?" I assented, curtly, for, although I agreed with him from the bottom of my heart, I didn't mean to be chaffed on a certain subject, even by him. In order, probably, to tease me, he made no further allusion to the other object of my visit, so that I was, at last, forced to broach the subject myself. "Oh, May? She's really much better. There is no doubt of it. I think the idea of brain fever thoroughly frightened her, for now she meekly obeys orders, and takes any medicine I prescribe without a murmur." "Well, but then why did you write that you wished to consult me about her?" "Because, Charley," he replied, laying aside his previously flippant manner, "although her general health has greatly improved, I can't say as much for her nervous condition. The latter seems to me so unsatisfactory that I am beginning to believe that Mrs. Derwent was not far wrong when she suggested that her daughter might be slightly demented." I felt myself grow cold, notwithstanding the heat of the day. Then, remembering the quiet and collected way she had behaved under circumstances as trying as any I could imagine a girl's being placed in, I took courage again. May was not insane. I would not believe it. "At all events," continued Fred, "I felt that she should not be left without medical care, and, as I can't get out to see her, and as she detests the only other doctor in the place, I suggested to Mrs. Derwent that she should consult you. Being a friend of mine, ostensibly here on a simple visit, it would be the most natural thing in the world for you to go over to their place, and you could thus see May, and judge of her condition without her knowing that she was under observation." "That's well. It is always best to see a nervous patient off guard, if possible. Now, tell me all the particulars of the case." When he had done this, I could not refrain from asking whether Norman was still there.