e
seen induces me to think; if in the employment of this fluid there be
means to assist nature, a studious man, who has any charity towards his
fellows, should study before he decides on it, and reject nothing novel,
as it may be, until he has proven it to be false or impotent."

"Here is the doctor!" said the Vicomte d'Harcourt, quickly opening the
door, and introducing Von Apsberg.--"I have taken him from a grave
consultation to see my sister." Hurrying to his sister, the Vicomte
kissed her. Marie blushed; was not this blush caused, perhaps, by the
coming of the doctor?--Was it caused by Rene's kiss? The heart alone can
tell; and young women's hearts do not answer such questions very
readily.

"Marie yet suffers," said the Duke to the false Matheus. "With you
though, doctor, hope and health always return. For that reason we are
unwilling you should ever leave us." It was now the doctor's turn to
blush.

"You certainly," said he, "estimate my influence over the disease to be
in proportion to my wish to soothe it. If such were really the case, you
might be of good cheer, for my wishes are limitless."

"There is a doctor for you, modest, talented, and one who uses no drugs
and none of the remedies of the old medicine," said the Vicomte;
"pantomime with him is every thing, as with the ballet-doctors of the
opera. A few signs and gestures and away goes the disease, like the
devil when holy water is brought him."

Von Apsberg said with a smile, "such an eulogium as the Vicomte's would,
a few centuries ago, have sent me to the stake. Fortunately there is now
no danger of that, for there is no longer any faith in magicians.
Rightly enough, too, for if not so, there would be no glory and
advantage in wisdom. _Savans_ are fond of their privileges. For my own
part, though no philosopher, I do not deal in magic, though from study I
have learned that there are secret agents in nature too much neglected
even now, though much good has resulted and the most marvellous effects
have been produced from them. Of these agents, the magnetic fluid is the
surest, the most active and powerful. Like all other imponderable
fluids, it is invisible, passing through space perhaps with the rapidity
of light, though unlike the latter, its passage is not interrupted by
the opposition of opaque bodies, which it penetrates as caloric does.[F]
I do not pretend, Duke," continued Von Apsberg, "to teach you the theory
of magnetism, but at all risks t