and many of them
were idling about in pairs or threes, talking, reading, all in rather
commonplace athletic costumes--soft woolen shirts, knee trousers,
stockings and running or walking shoes. They were in the main evidently
of the so-called learned professions or the arts--doctors, lawyers,
preachers, actors, writers, with a goodly sprinkling of merchants,
manufacturers and young and middle-aged society men, as well as
politicians and monied idlers, generally a little the worse for their
pleasures or weaknesses. A distinguished judge of one of the superior
courts of New York and an actor known everywhere in the English-speaking
world were instantly recognized by me. Others, as I was subsequently
informed, were related by birth or achievement to some one fact or
another of public significance. The reason for the presence of so many
people rather above than under the average in intellect lay, as I came
to believe later, in their ability or that of some one connected with
them to sincerely appreciate or to at least be amused and benefited by
the somewhat different theory of physical repair which the lord of the
manor had invented, or for which at least he had become famous.

I have remarked that I was not inclined to be impressed. Sanitariums
with their isms and theories did not appeal to me. However, as I was
waiting here an incident occurred which stuck in my mind. A smart
conveyance drove up, occupied by a singularly lean and haughty-looking
individual, who, after looking about him, expecting some one to come out
to him no doubt, clambered cautiously out, and after seeing that his
various grips and one trunk were properly deposited on the gravel square
outside, paid and feed his driver, then walked in and remarked:

"Ah--where is Mr. Culhane?"

"I don't know, sir," I replied, being the only one present. "He was
here, but he's gone. I presume some one will show up presently."

He walked up and down a little while, and then added: "Um--rather
peculiar method of receiving one, isn't it? I wired him I'd be here." He
walked restlessly and almost waspishly to and fro, looking out of the
window at times, at others commenting on the rather casual character of
it all. I agreed.

Thus, some fifteen minutes having gone by without any one approaching
us, and occasional servants or "guests" passing through the room or
being seen in the offing without even so much as vouchsafing a word or
appearing to be interested in us, the n