, reasonable, and
universally obeyed a guest.

There was a pause here, and Dr. Sevier looked around at the book which
lay at his elbow. But the visitor did not resume, and the Doctor
presently asked:--

"Do you wish me to see your wife?"

"I called to see you alone first," said the other, "because there might
be questions to be asked which were better answered in her absence."

"Then you think you know the secret of her illness, do you?"

"I do. I think, indeed I may say I know, it is--bereavement."

The Doctor compressed his lips and bowed.

The stranger drooped his head somewhat, and, resting his elbows on the
arms of his chair, laid the tips of his thumbs and fingers softly
together.

"The truth is, sir, she cannot recover from the loss of our son."

"An infant?" asked the Doctor. His bell rang again as he put the
question.

"No, sir; a young man,--one whom I had thought a person of great
promise; just about to enter life."

"When did he die?"

"He has been dead nearly a year. I"-- The speaker ceased as the
mulatto waiting-man appeared at the open door, with a large, simple,
German face looking easily over his head from behind.

"Toctor," said the owner of this face, lifting an immense open hand,
"Toctor, uf you bleace, Toctor, you vill bleace ugscooce me."

The Doctor frowned at the servant for permitting the interruption. But
the gentleman beside him said:--

"Let him come in, sir; he seems to be in haste, sir, and I am not,--I am
not, at all."

"Come in," said the physician.

The new-comer stepped into the room. He was about six feet three inches
in height, three feet six in breadth, and the same in thickness. Two
kindly blue eyes shone softly in an expanse of face that had been
clean-shaven every Saturday night for many years, and that ended in a
retreating chin and a dewlap. The limp, white shirt-collar just below
was without a necktie, and the waist of his pantaloons, which seemed
intended to supply this deficiency, did not quite, but only almost
reached up to the unoccupied blank. He removed from his respectful head
a soft gray hat, whitened here and there with flour.

"Yentlemen," he said, slowly, "you vill ugscooce me to interruptet
you,--yentlemen."

"Do you wish to see me?" asked Dr. Sevier.

The German made an odd gesture of deferential assent, lifting one open
hand a little in front of him to the level of his face, with the wrist
bent forward and the fingers pointing down.

"