CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
THE SECOND PART
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
THE THIRD PART
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
THE FOURTH PART
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVIII
POSTSCRIPT
THE FIRST PART
CHAPTER I
In the year 1860, the reputation of Doctor Wybrow as a London physician
reached its highest point. It was reported on good authority that he
was in receipt of one of the largest incomes derived from the practice
of medicine in modern times.
One afternoon, towards the close of the London season, the Doctor had
just taken his luncheon after a specially hard morning’s work in his
consulting-room, and with a formidable list of visits to patients at
their own houses to fill up the rest of his day—when the servant
announced that a lady wished to speak to him.
“Who is she?” the Doctor asked. “A stranger?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I see no strangers out of consulting-hours. Tell her what the hours
are, and send her away.”
“I have told her, sir.”
“Well?”
“And she won’t go.”
“Won’t go?” The Doctor smiled as he repeated the words. He was a
humourist in his way; and there was an absurd side to the situation
which rather amused him. “Has this obstinate lady given you her name?”
he inquired.
“No, sir. She refused to give any name—she said she wouldn’t keep you
five minutes, and the matter was too important to wait till to-morrow.
There she is in the consulting-room; and how to get her out again is
more than I know.”
Doctor Wybrow considered for a moment. His knowledge of women
(professionally speaking) rested on the ripe experience of more than
thirty years; he had met with them in all their varieties—especially
the variety which knows nothing of the value of time, and never
hesitates at sheltering itself behind the privileges of its sex. A
glance at his watch informed him that he must soon begin his rounds
among the patients who were waiting for him at their own houses. He
decided forthwith on taking the only wise course that was open under
the circumstances. In other words, he decided on taking to flight.
“Is the carriage at the door?” he asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Very well. Open the house-door for me without making any noise, and
leave the lady in undisturbed possession of the consulting-room. When
she gets tired of waiting, you know what to tell her. If she asks when
I am expected to return, say that I dine at my club, and spend the
evening at the theatre. Now then, softly, Thomas! If your shoes creak,
I am a lost man.”
He noiselessly led the way into the hall, followed by the servant on
tip-toe.
Did the lady in the consulting-room suspect him? or did Thomas’s shoes
creak, and was her sense of hearing unusually keen? Whatever the
explanation may be, the event that actually happened was beyond all
doubt. Exactly as Doctor Wybrow passed his consulting-room, the door
opened—the lady appeared on the threshold—and laid her hand on his arm.
“I entreat you, sir, not to go away without letting me speak to you
first.”
The accent was foreign; the tone was low and firm. Her fingers closed
gently, and yet resolutely, on the Doctor’s arm.
Neither her language nor her action had the slightest effect in
inclining him to grant her request. The influence that instantly
stopped him, on the way to his carriage, was the silent influence of
her face. The startling contrast between the corpse-like pallor of her
complexion and the overpowering life and light, the glittering metallic
brightness in her large black eyes, held him literally spell-bound. She
was dressed in dark colours, with perfect taste; she was of middle
height, and (apparently) of middle age—say a year or two over thirty.
Her lower features—the nose, mouth, and chin—possessed the fineness and
delicacy of form which is oftener seen among women of foreign races
than among women of English birth. She was unquestionably a handsome
person—with the one serious drawback of her ghastly complexion, and
with the less noticeable defect of a total want of tenderness in the
expression of her eyes. Apart from his first emotion of surprise, the
feeling she produced in the Doctor may be described as an overpowering
feeling of professional curiosity. The case might prove to be something
entirely new in his professional experience. “It looks like it,” he
thought; “and it’s worth waiting for.”
She perceived that she had produced a strong impression of some kind
upon him, and dropped her hold on his arm.
“You have comforted many miserable women in your time,” she said.
“Comfort one more, to-day.”
Without waiting to be answered, she led the way back into the room.
The Doctor followed her, and closed the door. He placed her in the
patients’ chair, opposite the windows. Even in London the sun, on that
summer afternoon, was dazzlingly bright. The radiant light flowed in on
her. Her eyes met it unflinchingly, with the steely steadiness of the
eyes of an eagle. The smooth pallor of her unwrinkled skin looked more
fearfully white than ever. For the first time, for many a long year
past, the Doctor felt his pulse quicken its beat in the presence of a
patient.
Having possessed herself of his attention, she appeared, strangely
enough, to have nothing to say to him. A curious apathy seemed to have
taken possession of this resolute woman. Forced to speak first, the
Doctor merely inquired, in the conventional phrase, what he could do
for her.
The sound of his voice seemed to rouse her. Still looking straight at
the light, she said abruptly: “I have a painful question to ask.”
“What is it?”
Her eyes travelled slowly from the window to the Doctor’s face. Without
the slightest outward appearance of agitation, she put the “painful
question” in these extraordinary words:
“I want to know, if you please, whether I am in danger of going mad?”
Some men might have been amused, and some might have been alarmed.
Doctor Wybrow was only conscious of a sense of disappointment. Was this
the rare case that he had anticipated, judging rashly by appearances?
Was the new patient only a hypochondriacal woman, whose malady was a
disordered stomach and whose misfortune was a weak brain? “Why do you
come to _me?_” he asked sharply. “Why don’t you consult a doctor whose
special employment is the treatment of the insane?”
She had her answer ready on the instant.
“I don’t go to a doctor of that sort,” she said, “for the very reason
that he _is_ a specialist: he has the fatal habit of judging everybody
by lines and rules of his own laying down. I come to _you_, because my
case is outside of all lines and rules, and because you are famous in
your profession for the discovery of mysteries in disease. Are you
satisfied?”
He was more than satisfied—his first idea had been the right idea,
after all. Besides, she was correctly informed as to his professional
position. The capacity which had raised him to fame and fortune was his
capacity (unrivalled among his brethren) for the discovery of remote
disease.
“I am at your disposal,” he answered. “Let me try if I can find out
what is the matter with you.”
He put his medical questions. They were promptly and plainly answered;
and they led to no other conclusion than that the strange lady was,
mentally and physically, in excellent health. Not satisfied with
questions, he carefully examined the great organs of life. Neither his
hand nor his stethoscope could discover anything that was amiss. With
the admirable patience and devotion to his art which had distinguished
him from the time when he was a student, he still subjected her to one
test after another. The result was always the same. Not only was there
no tendency to brain disease—there was not even a perceptible
derangement of the nervous system. “I can find nothing the matter with
you,” he said. “I can’t even account for the extraordinary pallor of
your complexion. You completely puzzle me.”
“The pallor of my complexion is nothing,” she answered a little
impatiently. “In my early life I had a narrow escape from death by
poisoning. I have never had a complexion since—and my skin is so
delicate, I cannot paint without producing a hideous rash. But that is
of no importance. I wanted your opinion given positively. I believed in
you, and you have disappointed me.” Her head dropped on her breast.
“And so it ends!” she said to herself bitterly.
The Doctor’s sympathies were touched. Perhaps it might be more correct
to say that his professional pride was a little hurt. “It may end in
the right way yet,” he remarked, “if you choose to help me.”
She looked up again with flashing eyes, “Speak plainly,” she said. “How
can I help you?”
“Plainly, madam, you come to me as an enigma, and you leave me to make
the right guess by the unaided efforts of my art. My art will do much,
but not all. For example, something must have occurred—something quite
unconnected with the state of your bodily health—to frighten you about
yourself, or you would never have come here to consult me. Is that
true?”
She clasped her hands in her lap. “That is true!” she said eagerly. “I
begin to believe in you again.”
“Very well. You can’t expect me to find out the moral cause which has
alarmed you. I can positively discover that there is no physical cause
of alarm; and (unless you admit me to your confidence) I can do no
more.”
She rose, and took a turn in the room. “Suppose I tell you?” she said.
“But, mind, I shall mention no names!”
“There is no need to mention names. The facts are all I want.”
“The facts are nothing,” she rejoined. “I have only my own impressions
to confess—and you will very likely think me a fanciful fool when you
hear what they are. No matter. I will do my best to content you—I will
begin with the facts that you want. Take my word for it, _they_ won’t
do much to help you.”
She sat down again. In the plainest possible words, she began the
strangest and wildest confession that had ever reached the Doctor’s
ears.