ertake to
control myself, Sir Patrick! Any thing missing from the library?"

"Nothing missing, Lady Lundie, but The Person herself. She--"

"No, Sir Patrick! I won't have it! In the name of my own sex, I won't
have it!"

"Pray pardon me--I forgot that 'she' was a prohibited pronoun on the
present occasion. The Person has written a farewell letter to Blanche,
and has gone nobody knows where. The distress produced by these events
is alone answerable for what has happened to Blanche this morning. If
you bear that in mind--and if you remember what your own opinion is of
Miss Silvester--you will understand why Blanche hesitated to admit you
into her confidence."

There he waited for a reply. Lady Lundie was too deeply absorbed in
completing her memorandum to be conscious of his presence in the room.

"'Carriage to be at the door at two-thirty,'" said Lady Lundie,
repeating the final words of the memorandum while she wrote them.
"'Inquire for the nearest justice of the peace, and place the privacy
of Windygates under the protection of the law.'--I beg your pardon!"
exclaimed her ladyship, becoming conscious again of Sir Patrick's
presence. "Have I missed any thing particularly painful? Pray mention it
if I have!"

"You have missed nothing of the slightest importance," returned Sir
Patrick. "I have placed you in possession of facts which you had a right
to know; and we have now only to return to our medical friend's report
on Blanche's health. You were about to favor me, I think, with the
Prognosis?"

"Diagnosis!" said her ladyship, spitefully. "I had forgotten at the
time--I remember now. Prognosis is entirely wrong."

"I sit corrected, Lady Lundie. Diagnosis."

"You have informed me, Sir Patrick, that you were already acquainted
with the Diagnosis. It is quite needless for me to repeat it now."

"I was anxious to correct my own impression, my dear lady, by comparing
it with yours."

"You are very good. You are a learned man. I am only a poor ignorant
woman. Your impression can not possibly require correcting by mine."

"My impression, Lady Lundie, was that our so friend recommended moral,
rather than medical, treatment for Blanche. If we can turn her thoughts
from the painful subject on which they are now dwelling, we shall do all
that is needful. Those were his own words, as I remember them. Do you
confirm me?"

"Can _I_ presume to dispute with you, Sir Patrick? You are a master of
refined irony, I know. I