The accent was foreign; the tone was low and firm.  Her fingers closed gently, and yet resolutely, on the Doctor’s arm.

Neither her language nor her action had the slightest effect in inclining him to grant her request.  The influence that instantly stopped him, on the way to his carriage, was the silent influence of her face.  The startling contrast between the corpse-like pallor of her complexion and the overpowering life and light, the glittering metallic brightness in her large black eyes, held him literally spell-bound.  She was dressed in dark colours, with perfect taste; she was of middle height, and (apparently) of middle age—­say a year or two over thirty.  Her lower features—­the nose, mouth, and chin—­ possessed the fineness and delicacy of form which is oftener seen among women of foreign races than among women of English birth.  She was unquestionably a handsome person—­with the one serious drawback of her ghastly complexion, and with the less noticeable defect of a total want of tenderness in the expression of her eyes.  Apart from his first emotion of surprise, the feeling she produced in the Doctor may be described as an overpowering feeling of professional curiosity.  The case might prove to be something entirely new in his professional experience.  ‘It looks like it,’ he thought; ‘and it’s worth waiting for.’

She perceived that she she had produced a strong impression of some kind upon him, and dropped her hold on his arm.

‘You have comforted many miserable women in your time,’ she said.  ‘Comfort one more, to-day.’

Without waiting to be answered, she led the way back into the room.

The Doctor followed her, and closed the door.  He placed her in the patients’ chair, opposite the windows.  Even in London the sun, on that summer afternoon, was dazzlingly bright.  The radiant light flowed in on her.  Her eyes met it unflinchingly, with the steely steadiness of the eyes of an eagle.  The smooth pallor of her unwrinkled skin looked more fearfully white than ever.  For the first time, for many a long year past, the Doctor felt his pulse quicken its beat in the presence of a patient.

Having possessed herself of his attention, she appeared, strangely enough, to have nothing to say to him.  A curious apathy seemed to have taken possession of this resolute woman.  Forced to speak first, the Doctor merely inquired, in the conventional phrase, what he could do for her.

The sound of his voice seemed to rouse her.  Still looking straight at the light, she said abruptly:  ‘I have a painful question to ask.’

‘What is it?’

Her eyes travelled slowly from the window to the Doctor’s face.  Without the slightest outward appearance of agitation, she put the ‘painful question’ in these extraordinary words: 

‘I want to know, if you please, whether I am in danger of going mad?’