isit which made it valuable,
especially when considered as a supplement to the experiences which I
have just submitted to the reader.

The doctor has found time amid the calls of a busy country practice
to jot down his recollections, and I feel that I cannot do better than
subjoin them exactly as they stand.

I have very much pleasure in furnishing Mr. Fothergill West with an
account of my solitary visit to Cloomber Hall, not only on account
of the esteem which I have formed for that gentleman ever since his
residence at Branksome, but also because it is my conviction that the
facts in the case of General Heatherstone are of such a singular nature
that it is of the highest importance that they should be placed before
the public in a trustworthy manner.

It was about the beginning of September of last year that I received
a note from Mrs. Heatherstone, of Cloomber Hall, desiring me to make a
professional call upon her husband, whose health, she said, had been for
some time in a very unsatisfactory state.

I had heard something of the Heatherstones and of the strange seclusion
in which they lived, so that I was very much pleased at this opportunity
of making their closer acquaintance, and lost no time in complying with
her request.

I had known the Hall in the old days of Mr. McVittie, the original
proprietor, and I was astonished on arriving at the avenue gate to
observe the changes which had taken place.

The gate itself, which used to yawn so hospitably upon the road, was
now barred and locked, and a high wooden fence, with nails upon the
top, encircled the whole grounds. The drive itself was leaf-strewn and
uncared-for, and the whole place had a depressing air of neglect and
decay.

I had to knock twice before a servant-maid opened the door and showed me
through a dingy hall into a small room, where sat an elderly, careworn
lady, who introduced herself as Mrs. Heatherstone. With her pale face,
her grey hair, her sad, colourless eyes, and her faded silk dress, she
was in perfect keeping with her melancholy surroundings.

"You find us in much trouble, doctor," she said, in a quiet, refined
voice. "My poor husband has had a great deal to worry him, and his
nervous system for a long time has been in a very weak state. We came to
this part of the country in the hope that the bracing air and the quiet
would have a good effect upon him. Instead of improving, however, he
has seemed to grow weaker, and this morning h