Master of His Fate

le Case of L

f a woman, thinks her complete though she may have a heart of ice. Lefevre, as he went his hospital round that afternoon, found his patients revelling in the sunlight like flies. He himself was in excellent spirits, and he said a cheery or facetious word here and there as he passed, which g

nts at his heels, when the door was swung open and two attendants entered, bearing

rity; for it was irregular to intrude a fresh case

ld like to see her at once: it seems to me a case si

t of a hospital nurse or probationer, the unconscious face was that of an educated gentlewoman. "Why, bless my soul!" he cri

et on a bench as if she had fainted. The keeper said he had taken particular notice of her, because he saw from her dress and her veil she was a hospital lady.

tor. "The very man! That's the me

n hour, he found the lady alone and apparently asleep. She had a very handsome umbrella by her side, and therefore he kept within eye-shot of her on this side and on that, lest some park-loafer should seize so good a chance of thieving. He thus passed her two or three times. The last time, he remarked that she had slipped a little to one side, and that her umbrella had

st be the same

house-physician, "that it must be the same man as wa

far more serious sense!" Then turning to the waiting policeman

" said the

ts, then, and say I sh

followed the evening before, without guessing that the man was perambulating the pavement and passing among the crowd in search, doubtless, of a fresh victim for occult experiment or outrage! That conclusion once determined, shock after shock smote upon his sense. What if the mysterious person were really proved to be Julius's father? What if he had entered upo

with a touch of excitement in her manner as he turned to her, "do you kno

ard and read, "Lady Mary F

a bad business. She has been learning at St Thomas's the duties of

nce, though he had sometimes sat at her father's table; but now he was moved by a beauty which was enhanced by helplessness-a beauty stamped with a calm disregard of itself-the manifest expression of a noble and loving soul, which had lived above the plane of doubt and fear and gusty passion. Her wealth of lustrous black hair lay abroad upon her pillow, and made an admirable setting for her fi

stimulation of Will and Electricity was applied to resuscitate the patient-but with the smallest success: there was only a faint flutter, a passing slight rigidity of the muscles, and all seemed aga

id he to his assistant, and turned aw

mitten with alarm,-as a man is who, walking through darkness and danger to the rescue of a friend, finds himself stopped by an unscalable wall. While he sought fresh means of help, his patient might pass beyond his reach. He did not think she would-he hoped she would not; but her condition, so obstinately resistant to his restoratives, was so peculiar, that he could not in the least determine the issue. I

eared in response to the doctor's telegram, and the experiment with the women had to wait. The old lord was naturally filled with wonder and anxiety when he saw his apparently lifeless daughter. He was amazed that she should have been overcome by such influence as, he understood, the old gentleman must wield. Sh

ke the young man's case that we have all read about,-whatever it is,"-and he laid his ha

the doctor's self-esteem, added gra

n the night before, and all that he suspected now, or should he hold his peace? His duty as a citizen, as a doctor, and as, in a sense, the protector of his patient, seemed to deman

case and his course regarding it. He put no curious questions; he merely inquired concerning the identity and the condition of the lady. When he heard who she was, and w

t other case you had,-that from the Brighton train?" Lefevre thought he was right in that. "'M. Dolaro:' that was the name. I had charge of the case, and was baff

id the doctor, "what crime

court; "and if it is not criminal,

my lord," said the de

but Lord Rivercourt seem

Lefevre; "but I must perfor

, of course, you have to rouse her. It did not occur to me what that machine meant. Something magneto-electric-eh? Forgive one quest

said he-"most serious, for this reason, that I cannot account for her obstinate lethargy;

rt. "I shall be sitting out a deba

rned north and south. He carefully explained to the two women what was demanded of them, and applied them to their task; but, whatever the cause, the failure was completer than before: there w

ter dinner, and went his way. The society of friends or acquaintances was distasteful to him then; the thought even of seeing his own familiar dining-room and his familiar man in black, whose silent obsequiousness he felt would be a reproach, was disagree

ort of way as the famous Dr Charbon of Paris would.... I should say so; quite as good, if not better than Charbon. I'd rather have an English doctor any day than a French.... His name's in the paper-Lefevre." Then the doctor woke to the fact that he was being talked about. He perceived his admirers were sitting at a table a little behind him, and he judged from what had been said that his fresh case was already being made

as a secret that would revolutionise all the treatment of nervous weakness and derangement. How came the idea? How do ideas ever come? As inspirations, we say, or as revelations; and truly they come upon us with such amazing and inspiriting freshness, that they may well be called either the one or the other. But no great idea had ever yet

returned with all speed to the hospital. He entered his female ward just as evening prayers were finished, before the

together new operation: the patient has

the

is manifestly a fluid of some sort: why should i

rightened into interest, "I should say, 'why not?' The only reason against it is wh

current, so to say, to draw it along, that we shall us

said the young man, "yo

the main nerve in the wrist,-upon which the young m

promptly offering? Do you know that my experiment, if successfu

risk, sir," sai

n his arm, and giving him a look of kindness. "Nobody must r

then

pass through the skin from a nerve in one person to a nerve in another. There is no difficulty about that; the difficulty is to set up a rapid enoug

e young man, loo

a musician,

aid the young man, w

ay the

es

o good as to bring me the bow of your violin, and borrow f

apparatus before him, and the young man set off on his errands. When he returned with the fiddle-bow

himself took hold of her left arm with his right hand, so that the inner side of his wrist was in contact with the inner side of hers

answered t

more rapid vibration at present than that which the note of that tuning-fork will produce. I

e young man,

better call the Sister to

n the cylinder of the electrode, her fingers dipping over into the vessels of che

u, I do not wish you, to exert yourself this time; I only wish you to keep that position, an

ire which Lefevre held. The wire hummed its vibration, and electricity tingled wildly through Lefevre's nerves...

e wire hummed under the tuning-fork and the vibration thrilled again, instantly he felt as if an inert obstruction had been removed. The vibratory influence whirled wildly through him, there was a pause of a second or two (which seemed to him many minutes in

k back in a chair. "It's a success," said he, turning his eyes with a thin