ng assistance; and why that
assistance was at last requested under the cloud of secrecy and
apprehension.

"That I intended to explain to you," she said, after a pause. "When I
felt myself ill (and my complaint commenced by excruciating pains in my
stomach, accompanied with vomiting), I told my husband that I feared it
would be necessary to call a doctor; but, ah, sir! the very thought
of the necessity of medical aid to the object of so much love and
tenderness, put him almost frantic. He confessed that it was a weakness;
but declared his inability to conquer it. Yet, alas! his unremitting
kindness has not diminished my disease. Though I have taken everything
his solicitude has suggested and offered to me, my pains still continue,
my appetite is entirely gone, and the weakness of my body has approached
that of the helpless infant. Three days ago I thought I would have
breathed my last; and parting thoughts of my native country, and the
dear friends I left there to follow the fortunes of a dearer stranger,
passed through my mind with the feeling of a long and everlasting
farewell. My husband wept over me, and prayed for my recovery; but he
could not think me so ill as to make the call of the doctor imperative;
and I did not press a subject which I saw was painful to him. No, sir,
I would rather have died than have produced in him the slightest
uneasiness; and my object in calling you in the secret manner you have
witnessed, was simply to avoid causing to him the pain of thinking that
my illness was so great as to render your services absolutely
necessary."

The communication I now heard, which was spoken in broken sentences
and after considerable pauses, in place of clearing up my difficulty,
increased it, and added to my surprise. Some light was, no doubt, thrown
on the cause which produced the secret manner of my visitation; but
every other circumstance attending the unfortunate lady's case was
merged in deeper gloom and mystery. The circumstance of a husband who
loved his wife refusing to call professional assistance, appeared to be
not less extraordinary than the reason assigned for it--even with all
the allowances, justified by a very prevailing prejudice, in some weak
minds, against the extremity of calling a doctor. I had heard something
of Colonel P----; that he was considered to be immensely rich, and known
to be a deep gambler, but I never understood that he was a victim of
weak or imaginary fears, and I was