"I call by appointment," said the boy testily, as the servant stood irresolute. The man gave way. "Master is just called out to a patient; please to wait, sir;" and he showed him into the little parlor. In a few moments two other patients were admitted. These were women, and they began talking very loud. They disturbed Leonard's unsocial thoughts. He saw that the door into the Doctor's receiving-room was half open, and, ignorant of the etiquette which holds such _penetralia_ as sacred, he walked in to escape from the gossips. He threw himself into the Doctor's own well-worn chair, and muttered to himself, "Why did he tell me to come? What new can he think of for me? And if a favor, should I take it? He has given me the means of bread by work: that is all I have a right to ask from him, from any man--all I should accept." While thus soliloquizing, his eye fell on a letter lying open on the table. He started. He recognized the handwriting--the same as the letter which had enclosed £50 to his mother--the letter of his grandparents. He saw his own name: he saw something more--words that made his heart stand still, and his blood seem like ice in his veins. As he thus stood aghast, a hand was laid on the letter, and a voice, in an angry growl, muttered, "How dare you come into my room, and be reading my letters? Er--r--r!" Leonard placed his own hand on the Doctor's firmly, and said in a fierce tone, "This letter relates to me--belongs to me--crushes me. I have seen enough to know that. I demand to read all--learn all." The Doctor looked round, and seeing the door into the waiting-room still open, kicked it to with his foot, and then said, under his breath, "What have you read? Tell me the truth." "Two lines only, and I am called--I am called"--Leonard's frame shook from head to foot, and the veins on his forehead swelled like cords. He could not complete the sentence. It seemed as if an ocean was rolling up through his brain, and roaring in his ears. The Doctor saw, at a glance, that there was physical danger in his state, and hastily and soothingly answered,--"Sit down, sit down--calm yourself--you shall know all--read all--drink this water;" and he poured into a tumbler of the pure liquid a drop or two from a tiny phial.