he went on for some time, in the old way, and made very little
progress.

I lost sight of her about this time, and never met her more. The sequel
of her history I only know from report. It is painful in the extreme. It
is, however, the history, in all its essential features, of thousands of
selfish people, who, after all, by dint of numbers, force, and
influence, contrive to rule the world.

Being fully determined to have no cares or responsibilities connected
with children or household, she not only refused to hearken to my
advice, but also to one or more truly kind and promising offers of
marriage. She pursued her selfish course undisturbed, unless by
occasional misgivings, till her brain and nervous system suffered so
severely that she began to approach the confines of insanity.

It was, however, a considerable time before the silver cord was loosed,
the golden bowl broken, and the wheel broken at the cistern. But the
terrible result at length came. The demands of violated physical law are
inexorable. She was conveyed, as a last resort, in the hope of cure, to
an insane hospital. Here, after many and patient attempts to restore the
crippled and broken down machinery to healthful motion, she ended her
days.

My female patients were not all equally unfortunate. One I had, whose
case, if minutely described, would present an array of facts painful in
the extreme. She, too, approached the dark regions of insanity; but she
did not enter. She still lives, and is at once a useful and happy woman,
and an excellent wife and housekeeper. As a means to her recovery,
however, she pursued a course diametrically opposite to that pursued by
Miss L. She did not shrink from care and responsibility; on the
contrary, she submitted to both. First, she sought increased activity
and usefulness in her father's family; and, secondly, in a family of her
own.

Concerning the last mentioned case, I have few misgivings, and equally
few confessions to make. I call it a remarkable case; but it must not be
revealed in its details, for other reasons besides its tediousness. In
the case of Miss L., however, I have one deep and lasting regret.

In the early part of my acquaintance with her, as a medical man, she
probably had more confidence in my integrity and skill than in those of
any other living individual. She had been early left an orphan; and I
was among the first--perhaps the very first--to take the attitude
towards her of a true father