we see daily and
hourly. You should have drawn my attention to my wife's health. It is
unfair, it is horrible to let this blow come upon me unawares."

If the Captain had appeared indifferent hitherto, there was no doubt of
the intensity of his feeling now. He had started up from his chair, and
walked backwards and forwards, strongly agitated.

"Shall we have another opinion?" asked Dr. Martin.

"Certainly. The highest in the land."

"Dr. Lorrimer, of Harley Street, is the most famous man for heart
disease."

"I'll telegraph to him immediately," said the Captain.

He ordered his horse, rode into Lyndhurst and dispatched his telegram
without the loss of a minute. Never had Dr. Martin seen anyone more in
earnest, or more deeply stricken by an announcement of evil.

"Poor fellow, he must be very fond of her," mused the surgeon, as he
rode off to his next call. "And yet I should have thought she must be
rather a tiresome kind of woman to live with. Her income dies with her
I suppose. That makes a difference."

The specialist from Harley Street arrived at the Abbey House on the
following afternoon. He made his examination and gave his opinion,
which was very much the same as Dr. Martin's, but clothed in more
scientific language.

"This poor lady's heart has been wearing out for the last twenty
years," he told the local surgeon; "but she seems, from your account,
to have been using it rather worse for the last year or so. Do you know
if she has had any particular occasion for worry?"

"Her only daughter has not got on very well with the second husband, I
believe," said Dr. Martin. "That may have worried her."

"Naturally. Small domestic anxieties of that kind are among the most
potent causes of heart disease." And then Dr. Lorrimer gave his
instructions about treatment. He had not the faintest hope of saving
the patient, but he gave her the full benefit of his science. A man
could scarcely come so far and do less. When he went out into the hall
and met the Captain, who was waiting anxiously for his verdict, he
began in the usual oracular strain; but Captain Winstanley cut him
short without ceremony.

"I don't want to hear details," he said. "Martin will do everything you
tell him. I want the best or the worst you can tell me in straightest
language. Can you save my wife, or am I to lose her?"

"My dear sir, while there is life there is hope," answered the
physician, with the compassionate air that had grown ha