hed his employer, with some severity of manner.
"The parties have been waiting, sir, for more than a quarter of an
hour." Mr. Mool's attention wandered: he was thinking of Mrs. Gallilee.
"Is she dying?" he asked. "She is out of her mind," Mr. Null answered.
Those words petrified the lawyer: he looked helplessly at the
clerk--who, in his turn, looked indignantly at the office clock.
Mr. Mool recovered himself. "Say I am detained by a most distressing
circumstance; I will call on the parties later in the day, at their
own hour." Giving those directions to the clerk, he hurried Mr. Null
upstairs into a private room. "Tell me about it; pray tell me about it.
Stop! Perhaps, there is not time enough. What can I do?"

Mr. Null put the question, which he ought to have asked when they met at
the house door. "Can you tell me Mr. Gallilee's address?"

"Certainly! Care of the Earl of Northlake--"

"Will you please write it in my pocket-book? I am so upset by this
dreadful affair that I can't trust my memory."

Such a confession of helplessness as this, was all that was wanted to
rouse Mr. Mool. He rejected the pocket-book, and wrote the address on a
telegram. "Return directly: your wife is seriously ill." In five minutes
more, the message was on its way to Scotland; and Mr. Null was at
liberty to tell his melancholy story--if he could.

With assistance from Mr. Mool, he got through it. "This morning," he
proceeded, "I have had the two best opinions in London. Assuming that
there is no hereditary taint, the doctors think favourably of Mrs.
Gallilee's chances of recovery."

"Is it violent madness?" Mr. Mool asked.

Mr. Null admitted that two nurses were required. "The doctors don't look
on her violence as a discouraging symptom," he said. "They are inclined
to attribute it to the strength of her constitution. I felt it my duty
to place my own knowledge of the case before them. Without mentioning
painful family circumstances--"

"I happen to be acquainted with the circumstances," Mr. Mool interposed.
"Are they in any way connected with this dreadful state of things?"

He put that question eagerly, as if he had some strong personal interest
in hearing the reply.

Mr. Null blundered on steadily with his story. "I thought it right (with
all due reserve) to mention that Mrs. Gallilee had been subjected to--I
won't trouble you with medical language--let us say, to a severe shock;
involving mental disturbance as well as bodily in