"Oh! no, miss. It's perfectly private, and very select indeed. We receive none but first-class people here--we don't indeed." She was turning down the covers of the bed as she spoke, and now she said, persuasively: "Come, now, let me help you to bed, miss, I want to tuck you up warm and comfortable before I leave you." Lily submitted patiently, but as she laid her tired head on the pillow, she asked, suddenly: "Is Dr. Heath a good man, Mary?" "La, now, miss, you must judge of that yourself. You will see him often enough before you get well," said Mary Brown. Lily was about to open her lips to refute the charge of her illness, when she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a wild and piercing shriek which seemed to come from the room that was next her own. In her alarm she sprang up and caught Mary Brown's arms in both hers, shuddering with surprise and terror. "Oh! what is it?" she cried, as the wild shriek was repeated again and again, mingled with frenzied shouts and peal after peal of frightful, demoniacal laughter. "It's only one of the sick ones, miss," said Mary Brown, uneasily. "Don't fret yourself, my dear. Lie down again. He will soon be quiet, and then you can go to sleep." A horrible suspicion flashed into Lily's mind. "Mary Brown, you have been deceiving me with your kind face and friendly talk. This is not a hospital for the sick. It is a private mad-house--is it not?" "Well, it is for people who are sick in their heads," admitted Mary. "You mean for people who are insane," said she, holding tightly to the woman's arm. Mary Brown nodded acquiescence. Lily was silent a moment, lost in painful thought. At length she said, sadly: "I hope you do not think that I am insane, Mary Brown?" "Oh! dear, no, miss," said Mary, in her placid tone. "Of course not." "But you _do_ believe it. I can see that plainly," cried Lily, in an anguished tone. "You have been humoring and petting me, taking me for some insane creature. But I assure you I am not. I am perfectly sane, though I have suffered cruelty and injustice enough to have driven me mad long ago. I have been brought here by two wicked men to be made a prisoner because I will not marry a man whom I hate." "You poor, injured dear," said the good nurse, affecting to believe the young girl's story, though in her heart she set it down simply as one of the vagaries of madness. "You do not believe me," cried Lily, passionately. "Oh! God, is this crowning insult to be added to my sufferings? Must they represent me as mad, and thus drive me into insanity indeed?" The attendant began to think that her beautiful and gentle patient was becoming violent. She gently but forcibly released her arms from Lily's clasp, and laid the moaning girl back on her pillow. "My dear," she said, "you must not excite yourself. You look too ill to stand agitation. I must go now and help Doctor Heath to manage that poor shrieking maniac in the next room. Try and go to sleep, my pretty dear."