“I shall do so, madam, and I think he will do himself the pleasure of seeing you in the course of to-morrow.”

Both doctors could, with a very good conscience, furnish Mrs. Lindsay with the opinions which she required.  She saw the other medical gentleman on the following day, and, after handing him a handsome douceur, he felt no hesitation in corroborating the opinion of his brother physician.

Having procured the documents in question, she transmitted them, enclosed in a letter, to Lord Cockletown, stating that her son Woodward, who had been seized by a pleuritic attack, would not be able, she feared, to pay his intended visit to Miss Biddle so soon as he had expected; but, in the meantime, she had the honor of enclosing him the documents she alluded to on the occasion of her last visit.  And this she did with the hope of satisfying his lordship on the subject they had been discussing, and with a further hope that he might become an advocate for her son, at least until he should be able to plead his own cause with the lady herself, which nothing but indisposition prevented him from doing.  The doctor, she added, had advised him to try the waters of the Spa of Ballyspellan for a short time, as he had little doubt that they would restore him to perfect health.  She sent her love to dear Miss Riddle, and hoped ere long to have the pleasure of clasping her to her heart as a daughter.

CHAPTER XX.  Woodward’s Visit to Ballyspellan.

After a consultation with his mother our worthy hero prepared for his journey to this once celebrated Spa, which possessed even then a certain local celebrity, that subsequently widened to an ampler range.  The little village was filled with invalids of all classes; and even the farmers’ houses in the vicinity were occupied with individuals in quest of health.  The family of the Goodwins, however, were still in deep affliction, although Alice, for the last few days, was progressing favorably.  Still, such was her weakness, that she was unable to walk unless supported by two persons, usually her maid and her mother or her father.  The terrible influence of the Evil Eye had made too deep and deadly an impression ever, she feared, to be effaced; for, although removed from Woodward’s blighting gaze, that eye was perpetually upon her, through the medium of her strong but diseased imagination.  And who is there who does not know how strongly the force of imagination acts?  On this subject she had now become a perfect hypochondriac.  She could not shake it off, it haunted her night and day; and even the influence of society could scarcely banish the dread image of that mysterious and fearful look for a moment.