"That was the idea which ere now struck me, and which has brought me hither to consult you!" exclaimed the Earl.
"She may be the prey to some insidious disease which impairs not her exterior aspect at present," continued Doctor Lascelles; "say, for instance, a cancer in the breast. Or again, her motive may be a moral one; inasmuch as she may be aware, from some secret warnings, that she is in danger of suffering an aberration of reason."
"And if the lady were a patient of your own, doctor," asked the Earl, "should you be enabled to judge whether she were menaced by that dreadful mental malady to which you have alluded?"
"Decidedly so," replied the physician.
The Earl rose from his seat, and walked two or three times up and down the apartment.
Dr. Lascelles followed him with his eyes; and as he surveyed the strong, well-knit, but slender and graceful form of the young nobleman, the votary of science could not help thinking what a splendid skeleton he would make.
At length the Earl stopped abruptly opposite the doctor, and said in an impressive tone, "You will never reveal the particulars of this interview?"
"It is scarcely probable," returned Lascelles, with a smile.
"But you promise me—you pledge your word never to breathe a syllable which may betray the motive of my present visit or the topic of our conversation?" persisted the Earl.
"Never," exclaimed the physician.