“I am going to be confidential, Smedley. Are you aware if your master has any secret trouble on his mind, any worry that he reveals to no one?”

“No, sir, I am not.”

“Thank you, Smedley. Good night.”

“Good night, sir, and thank you.”

I had obtained no light from Alexis, and I sought in vain for an explanation of my patient’s condition. Of course, it was plausible enough to argue that his passion for Rosa was at the root of the evil; but I remembered Rosa’s words to me in the carriage, and I was disposed to agree with them. To me, as to her, it seemed that, though Alresca was the sort of man to love deeply, he was not the sort of man to allow an attachment,