"Please, Dr. Duncan," she said, "there is a lady downstairs who has called to see you. I told her that you were engaged—as you ordered—but she will not go: she said she must see you, that her business is of the utmost importance."
"Tell her that I cannot possibly see her just now," whispered the doctor.
The woman went out but returned in a minute or so.
"Has she not gone?" he asked, an angry look on his face.
"No, sir! she won't go; she says she will wait for you till you can see her."
"What name did she give?"
"She wouldn't give her name, sir," replied the nurse, "she says you must see her, that she has come on a matter of life and death. She says that what she has to tell you is a secret that affects Mrs. Duncan." The woman hesitated as she continued, "She told me to tell you, sir, that she can save Mrs. Duncan's life. I think she is crazy, sir; but she looks as if she were very much in earnest."
The doctor pondered for a few moments, then seeing that his wife was still in a profound sleep, he drew his arm gently from under her head, and after whispering to the nurse to remain there until he returned, he noiselessly left the room.
On entering the study he saw Catherine King standing by the fire-place, erect as of old, but with a face deadly pale.
His brain had been rendered irritable by his anxious watching, and as soon as he beheld her a great rage seized him. He said to himself that it was this woman and her crew that had tortured, maddened his little wife: and now she, the worst of all, had even dared to beard him within his own doors.