Master of His Fate

Dola

singular railway outrage. It was clear its purpose was not robbery. What, then, did it mean? Some-probably most-decla

. After persistent and wider inquiries, however, at Clapham Junction (which was the most likely point of departure), a cabman was found who remembered having taken up a fare-a gentleman in a fur coat-about the hour indicated. He particularly remarked the gentleman, because he looked odd and foreign and half tipsy (that was how he seemed to him), because he was wrapped up "enough for Father Christ

ed the things away, he had gone to his room, and next morning he had left the hotel soon after dawn. Boots, half asleep, had seen him walk away, bag in hand, wrapped in his greatcoat,-walk away, it would seem, and dissolve into the mist of the morning, for from that point no further trace could be got of him. No such figure as his had been seen on any of the roads leading

of that a young man of his patient's strong and healthy constitution and temper should be hypnotised or mesmerised at all, much less hypnotised to the verge of dissolution; and it was unprecedented that even a weak, hysterical subject should, after being unhypnotised, remain so long in pros

man in the H?tel-Dieu, which Lefevre had forgotten. The writer remarked on the points of similarity which the case in the Brighton train bore to that of the Paris pavement; insisted on the probable identi

ence. He had perceived while still a young man (he was now about forty) that all medical practice-as distinct from surgical-is inexact and empirical, that, like English common law, it is based merely on custom, and a narrow range of experience; and he had therefore argued that a wider experience and research, especially among decaying nations, might lead to the discovery of a guiding principle in pathology. That conviction had taken him as medical officer to Egypt and India, where, amid the relics of civilisations half as old as time, he found tra

promise of light, when one afternoon he went to t

oth. He tested-as he had done almost daily-his nervous and respiratory powers with the exact instruments adapted for the purpose, and

y had evaporated,-and I used to have no end,-just a

smallest inflaming hint, he was wont to make an excursion. Such a hint was the saying of the young officer now, and, as he walked away, he found himself, as it were, knocking at the door of a great discovery. But the door did not op

him there, he inquired for him at his chambers in the Albany. Hearing nothing of him there, and the ar

much to have a serious conversation with him; she had been expecting for days to see him, and she begged

nothing to fulfil it but tap ineffectually for admission to his friend's confidence. He therefore considered with some anxiety what he should do, for Lady Lefevre could on occasion be exacting and severe with her son. He concluded nothing cou

etained by that mysterious case you have at the hospital. Here's Dr. Rippon-and Julius too-dying to hear

like medical revelations; they make me feel as i

ewhat more chastened in manner and less effervescent in health,-like a fire of coal that has spent its gas and settled into a steady glow of heat,-he turned to Dr Rippon, a tall, thin old

im," and the old doctor straightened himself. "But he'll get old too; that's the sad thing, from my point of view, that such be

tney-Julius Court

an of that name, or, rather, who took that name. I wonder if this fri

of the same family, but I don't know anything of his

e would be full of interest and contemporary allusion, for the old physician ha

of beginning it when

story when we return to the

hat purpose had he done it? These questions were mostly ignorant and thoughtless, and Lefevre either parried them or answered them with great reserve. When the ladies retired from table, however, mo

you in what direction you are looki

e been for some time working round, and I hope gradually getting nearer, a scientific secret of enormous-of transcendent value

id Julius. "And is t

to fin

uiry, and hamper you in several ways. I would declare to every scientific man, 'Unless you become as a little child or a poet, you will discover no great truth!' Setting aside your bias towards what you call 'electricity,' you are really hoping to discover

id Dr Rippon, with grave irony; "and doctors

is 'imponderable:' it can neither be weighed nor measured! It flows and thrills in the nerves of men and women, animals and plants, throughout the whole of Natu

autiful and fresh,"

fe is linked and kin;' so did the Egyptians and the Greeks, when they worshipped the principle of life everywhere; and so did our own barbaric ancesto

dent interest, with sympathetic and intelligent eye; "but a time will come even t

r a second or two deadly sick. He

he horror of the shade. It's not that I am afraid of dying-of merely ceasing to live; it is t

uquet and the flavour. Lefevre beheld him with surprise, for he had never before seen Julius

, "that's a new experience

ve begun it very recently. I did not think it wise to postpon

"'I sought in mine heart,'" said he, gravely quoting, "'to gi

ness' sake, you ought to quote also, 'Whatsoever mine eyes desir

one to the other in some

atest of books: you will find it included in your Bible. Mr Courtney clearly knows it. I shou

d a 'philosophy.' He was moved by an irresistible impulse, of which he gives you the expl

e eyes of memory. "You will, I hope, forgive me when I say that you remind me very much of a gen

ot very uncommon." Then, turning to Lefevre, he said, "I hope you don't think I wish to make light

ry. So when they went to the drawing-room he got the old gent

rson, and I could never quite make out what his studies were, except that he read a great deal, and believed firmly in the Arabic philosophers and alchemists of the middle ages; and he would sometimes talk with the same sort of rhapsodical mysticism as this young man delights you with. We did not have much opportunity for developing an intimacy in any case; for he fell in love with the daughter of our Chief Secretary of Legation, a bright, lovely English girl, and that ended disastrously for his position in Madrid. He made his proposals to her father, and had them refused; chiefly, I believe, on account of his loose re

were their son, do you know of any reason w

s not episcopal in his affections; but I should think the

caught sight of him and Leonora Lefevre standing one on eit

the old doctor, "seems

fevre; "and sh

tor; "I fear my remark

ue," said

er. He found her excited and warm,

he, "some serious t

r before saw such a pair of moonstruck mortals! I believe I have heard of the moon having a magnetic influence on people: do you think it has? But he is

mpression-like a strongly bitten etching wrought on his memory-of his last glimpse of the drawing-room: Nora and Julius set talking across a small table, and the tall, pale, gaunt figure of Dr Rippon approach