; but not, strictly speaking, from the
person himself. I have received a medical report of his excellency of
the eight letters, and his case seems a bad one. God help him!"

"The diligence!" cried a child from the outskirts of the crowd.

The musicians seized their instruments, and silence fell on the whole
community. From far away in the windings of the forest gorge, the ring
of horses' bells came faintly clear through the evening stillness. Which
carriage was approaching--the private carriage with Mr. Armadale, or the
public carriage with Mr. Neal?

"Play, my friends!" cried the mayor to the musicians. "Public or
private, here are the first sick people of the season. Let them find us
cheerful."

The band played a lively dance tune, and the children in the square
footed it merrily to the music. At the same moment, their elders near
the inn door drew aside, and disclosed the first shadow of gloom that
fell over the gayety and beauty of the scene. Through the opening made
on either hand, a little procession of stout country girls advanced,
each drawing after her an empty chair on wheels; each in waiting (and
knitting while she waited) for the paralyzed wretches who came helpless
by hundreds then--who come helpless by thousands now--to the waters of
Wildbad for relief.

While the band played, while the children danced, while the buzz of many
talkers deepened, while the strong young nurses of the coming cripples
knitted impenetrably, a woman's insatiable curiosity about other women
asserted itself in the mayor's wife. She drew the landlady aside, and
whispered a question to her on the spot.

"A word more, ma'am," said the mayor's wife, "about the two strangers
from England. Are their letters explicit? Have they got any ladies with
them?"

"The one by the diligence--no," replied the landlady. "But the one by
the private carriage--yes. He comes with a child; he comes with a nurse;
and," concluded the landlady, skillfully keeping the main point of
interest till the last, "he comes with a Wife."

The mayoress brightened; the doctoress (assisting at the conference)
brightened; the landlady nodded significantly. In the minds of all three
the same thought started into life at the same moment--"We shall see the
Fashions!"

In a minute more, there was a sudden movement in the crowd; and a chorus
of voices proclaimed that the travelers were at hand.

By this time the coming vehicle was in sight, and all further doubt was