_my_ affairs--such as they are--if you had considered my life to be in
danger. Is there nothing the matter with me?"

"I don't say that," the doctor replied. "The action of your heart is
very feeble. Take the medicine that I shall prescribe; pay a little
more attention to eating and drinking than ladies usually do; don't run
upstairs, and don't fatigue yourself by violent exercise--and I see no
reason why you shouldn't live to be an old woman."

"God forbid!" the lady said to herself. She turned away, and looked out
of the window with a bitter smile.

Doctor Allday wrote his prescription. "Are you likely to make a long
stay in London?" he asked.

"I am here for a little while only. Do you wish to see me again?"

"I should like to see you once more, before you go away--if you can make
it convenient. What name shall I put on the prescription?"

"Miss Jethro."

"A remarkable name," the doctor said, in his matter-of-fact way.

Miss Jethro's bitter smile showed itself again.

Without otherwise noticing what Doctor Allday had said, she laid the
consultation fee on the table. At the same moment, the footman appeared
with a letter. "From Miss Emily Brown," he said. "No answer required."

He held the door open as he delivered the message, seeing that Miss
Jethro was about to leave the room. She dismissed him by a gesture; and,
returning to the table, pointed to the letter.

"Was your correspondent lately a pupil at Miss Ladd's school?" she
inquired.

"My correspondent has just left Miss Ladd," the doctor answered. "Are
you a friend of hers?"

"I am acquainted with her."

"You would be doing the poor child a kindness, if you would go and see
her. She has no friends in London."

"Pardon me--she has an aunt."

"Her aunt died a week since."

"Are there no other relations?"

"None. A melancholy state of things, isn't it? She would have been
absolutely alone in the house, if I had not sent one of my women
servants to stay with her for the present. Did you know her father?"

Miss Jethro passed over the question, as if she had not heard it. "Has
the young lady dismissed her aunt's servants?" she asked.

"Her aunt kept but one servant, ma'am. The woman has spared Miss Emily
the trouble of dismissing her." He briefly alluded to Mrs. Ellmother's
desertion of her mistress. "I can't explain it," he said when he had
done. "Can _you_?"

"What makes you think, sir, that I can help you? I have never even heard
of the