"Send her to Doctor Chalmers, my colleague."
"She declares that she will not leave without seeing you. Here is her card."
The sight of that graven name seemed for an instant to petrify the beholder, and several seconds elapsed ere he was able to command himself sufficiently to speak.
Going to his shrinking wife, he raised her hand and pressed it to his lips in a way that was infinitely pathetic.
"I must leave you for a moment, to attend to an urgent case," he whispered; "and while I am gone, I beseech you to pardon a love which transcends all bounds. Some day you will understand all I have suffered. Be lenient with me, for I am an object for pity!"
In the dimness of his office, which had undergone no renovation and no decoration, he found himself confronted by the tall and slender figure of a woman whom he knew full well. The veil had been raised from before the appealing beauty of the face which bore but slight traces of alteration since last he looked upon Margaret Revaleon!
His greeting was of so cordial a nature as to preclude all attempt on the part of his visitor to apologize for her intrusion.
"I am more than glad to see you, Mrs. Revaleon," he exclaimed, excitedly; "your visit is most opportune. For the past week you have been omnipresent in my thoughts. Who shall say that I am not developing something of your own peculiar clairvoyance?"
"I trust not," she said, regarding the speaker with apparent uneasiness.
But he continued, with precipitate heedlessness,