for one of
her years, although it might have been enhanced somewhat by the fine vail
of white tulle which she wore over it. She was tall and commanding in
figure, a little inclined toward portliness, but every motion was replete
with graceful dignity and high-bred repose.

After giving directions to her coachman to wait for her, she mounted the
steps leading to the door, pausing for an instant to read the name, "R.
Wesselhoff, M.D." engraved upon a silver plate, before ringing the bell.

A colored servant soon answered her call, and responded affirmatively to
her inquiry if the noted physician was in, then ushered her into a small
but elegantly appointed reception-room upon the right of the lofty hall.

Five minutes later an elderly and singularly prepossessing man entered
and saluted his visitor in a gracious and respectful manner.

"Mrs. Walton, I suppose?" he remarked, just glancing at the card which
she had given the servant.

The woman bowed, then observed, with a patient but pathetic sigh:

"I have called, Doctor Wesselhoff, upon a very sad errand, and one which
I trust you will regard as strictly confidential."

"Certainly, madame; I so regard all communications made by my patients,"
the gentleman courteously responded.

"I have a son," madame resumed, "who has of late betrayed symptoms of the
strangest mania, although he appears to be in perfect health in all other
respects. He imagines that some gigantic robbery has been committed;
sometimes he declares that bonds to a large amount have been stolen, at
other times it is money, then again that costly jewels have disappeared;
but the strangest phase of his malady consists in the fact that he
accuses me, and sometimes other members of the family, of being the
thief, and insists that he must have me arrested. This has gone on for
some time, and I have been obliged to adopt every kind of device in order
to keep him from carrying out his threats and thus creating a very
uncomfortable scandal. This morning he became more violent than usual,
and I felt obliged to take some decided step in regard to proper
treatment for him; therefore my visit to you."

"It is a singular mania, truly," said the physician, who had been
listening with the deepest interest to his companion's recital. "I
think I never have met with anything exactly like it before in all my
experience. How old is your son, Mrs. Walter?"

"Twenty-four years," the woman replied, with a heavy sigh; "