"And you think?" "A great deal, my dear sir--a great deal; but I have not finished yet. A clear case of overtaxed brain. I should say that he had worked himself into a state of exhaustion, and then some shock must have occurred to destroy the tottering balance. Not a money trouble, for I think Mr North is well off. Not a love trouble, for judging from what I saw--" "You are mistaken in that, sir," said Salis. "My poor friend suffered a grievous shock a short time since." "Ah! just as I expected. That is quite sufficient to account for it all." "But the future, sir? For goodness' sake, speak! Your reticence tortures me." "I beg your pardon. I am thoughtful and slow, Mr Salis. Let me try and set you at rest. As far as I can judge without further study of the case, I should say that you need be under very little uneasiness." "You do not consider his case necessitates his being placed in a private asylum?" "I should say the people who placed him in one deserved to be hanged. Well, no," he added, smiling; "not so bad as that, but to be placed in a private asylum themselves." "Thank God!" said Salis fervently, and the tears stood in his eyes as he grasped the old doctor's hands. The evening was growing old as Mr Delton sat facing Salis in his study, nursing his knee, and calmly watching the curate smoking his one per diem cigar. "No," said the old man, smiling; "I rarely smoke now; but North was right; it is good for you. I don't mind a bit. Pray go on." So Salis smoked and sat talking with the tea-things on the table. Leo had begged to be excused. The excitement had upset her, she said, and she was in her room, where Dally had taken her up some tea, and paused for some moments on the landing, in the dark, to set the saucer down upon the large window sill, and as she bent over the tray a faint gurgling sound was heard, and click as of glass against glass. The doctor had been in twice to see North, who was sleeping heavily, with Mary and the old housekeeper seated by him, the lamp being shaded and placed where the light could not trouble the patient; and, after a stormy day, all seemed to have settled down to calm repose. "My dear sir," said the doctor, "it is not the first time that Nature has performed a miracle of this kind. Your sister's nervous excitement did what we doctors were unable to perform--triumphed over the inert muscles. They obeyed; the latent force was set in action, and she rose from her couch to go to her poor friend's help--in time to save him from a very terrible fate, whether that fate was the private asylum, or that which he had evidently in mind. Poor fellow! I wish I had seen him sooner. No; it is better as it is, and he will say so when we have him once more himself." "Then you really do feel hopeful?"