The next instant I met a man on the crossing, who stopped and addressed me. So short-sighted was I that, although I recognised his voice as one I ought to know, I could not identify him until I had put on my spectacles, which I did instinctively in the act of returning his greeting. At the same moment I glanced over my shoulder after the old lady. She was nowhere to be seen. “‘What are you looking at?’ asked James Hetheridge. “‘I was looking after that old lady,’ I answered, ‘but I can’t see her.’ “‘What old lady?’ said Hetheridge, with just a touch of impatience. “‘You must have seen her,’ I returned. ‘You were not more than three yards behind her.’ “‘Where is she then?’ “‘She must have gone down one of the areas, I think. But she looked a lady, though an old-fashioned one.’ “‘Have you been dining?’ asked James, in a tone of doubtful inquiry. “‘No,’ I replied, not suspecting the insinuation; ‘I have only just come from the Museum.’ “‘Then I advise you to call on your medical man before you go home.’ “‘Medical man!’ I returned; ‘I have no medical man. What do you mean? I never was better in my life.’ “‘I mean that there was no old lady. It was an illusion, and that indicates something wrong. Besides, you did not know me when I spoke to you.’ “‘That is nothing,” I returned. ‘I had just taken off my spectacles, and without them I shouldn’t know my own father.’ “‘How was it you saw the old lady, then?’ “The affair was growing serious under my friend’s cross-questioning. I did not at all like the idea of his supposing me subject to hallucinations. So I answered, with a laugh, ‘Ah! to be sure, that explains it. I am so blind without my spectacles, that I shouldn’t know an old lady from a big dog.’ “‘There was no big dog,’ said Hetheridge, shaking his head, as the fact for the first time dawned upon me that, although I had seen the old lady clearly enough to make a sketch of her, even to the features of her care-worn, eager old face, I had not been able to recognise the well-known countenance of James Hetheridge. “‘That’s what comes of reading till the optic nerve is weakened,” he went on. ‘You will cause yourself serious injury if you do not pull up in time. I’ll tell you what; I’m going home next week--will you go with me?’ “‘You are very kind,’ I answered, not altogether rejecting the proposal, for I felt that a little change to the country would be pleasant, and I was quite my own master. For I had unfortunately means equal to my wants, and had no occasion to follow any profession--not a very desirable thing for a young man, I can tell you, Master Harry. I need not keep you over the commonplaces of pressing and yielding. It is enough to say that he pressed and that I yielded. The day was fixed for our departure together; but something or other, I forget what, occurred, to make him advance the date, and it was resolved that I should follow later in the month.