The date is between twenty and thirty years ago. The place is anEnglish sea-port. The time is night. And the business of themoment is--dancing.

The Mayor and Corporation of the town are giving a grand ball, incelebration of the departure of an Arctic expedition from theirport. The ships of the expedition are two in number--the_Wanderer_ and the _Sea-mew_. They are to sail (in search of theNorthwest Passage) on the next day, with the morning tide.

Honor to the Mayor and Corporation! It is a brilliant ball. Theband is complete. The room is spacious. The large conservatoryopening out of it is pleasantly lighted with Chinese lanterns,and beautifully decorated with shrubs and flowers. All officersof the army and navy who are present wear their uniforms in honorof the occasion. Among the ladies, the display of dresses (asubject which the men don't understand) is bewildering--and theaverage of beauty (a subject which the men do understand) is thehighest average attainable, in all parts of the room.

For the moment, the dance which is in progress is a quadrille.General admiration selects two of the ladies who are dancing asits favorite objects. One is a dark beauty in the prime ofwomanhood--the wife of First Lieutenant Crayford, of the_Wanderer_. The other is a young girl, pale and delicate; dressedsimply in white; with no ornament on her head but her own lovelybrown hair. This is Miss Clara Burnham--an orphan. She is Mrs.Crayford's dearest friend, and she is to stay with Mrs. Crayfordduring the lieutenant's absence in the Arctic regions. She is nowdancing, with the lieutenant himself for partner, and with Mrs.Crayford and Captain Helding (commanding officer of the_Wanderer_) for vis-a-vis--in plain English, for opposite couple.

The conversation between Captain Helding and Mrs. Crayford, inone of the intervals of the dance, turns on Miss Burnham. Thecaptain is greatly interested in Clara. He admires her beauty;but he thinks her manner--for a young girl--strangely serious andsubdued. Is she in delicate health?

Mrs. Crayford shakes her head; sighs mysteriously; and answers,

"In _very_ delicate health, Captain Helding."

"Consumptive?"

"Not in the least."

"I am glad to hear that. She is a charming creature, Mrs.Crayford. She interests me indescribably. If I was only twentyyears younger--perhaps (as I am not twenty years younger) I hadbetter not finish the sentence? Is it indiscreet, my dear lady,to inquire what _is_ the matter with her?"

"It might be indiscreet, on the part of a stranger," said Mrs.Crayford. "An old friend like you may make any inquiries. I wishI could tell you what is the matter with Clara. It is a mysteryto the doctors themselves. Some of the mischief is due, in myhumble opinion, to the manner in which she has been brought up."

"Ay! ay! A bad school, I suppose."

"Very bad, Captain Helding. But not the sort of school which youhave in your mind at this moment. Clara's early years were spentin a lonely old house in the Highlands of Scotland. The ignorantpeople about her were the people who did the mischief which Ihave just been speaking of. They filled her mind with thesuperstitions which are still respected as truths in the wildNorth--especially the superstition called the Second Sight."

"God bless me!" cried the captain, "you don't mean to say shebelieves in such stuff as that? In these enlightened times too!"

Mrs. Crayford looked at her partner with a satirical smile.

"In these enlightened times, Captain Helding, we only believe indancing tables, and in messages sent from the other world byspirits who can't spell! By comparison with such superstitions asthese, even the Second Sight has something--in the shape ofpoetry--to recommend it, surely? Estimate for yourself," shecontinued seriously, "the effect of such surroundings as I havedescribed on a delicate, sensitive young creature--a girl with anaturally imaginative temperament leading a lonely, neglectedlife. Is it so very surprising that she should catch theinfection of the superstition about her? And is it quiteincomprehensible that her nervous system should sufferaccordingly, at a very critical period of her life?"

"Not at all, Mrs. Crayford--not at all, ma'am, as you put it.Still it is a little startling, to a commonplace man like me, tomeet a young lady at a ball who believes in the Second Sight.Does she really profess to see into the future? Am I tounderstand that she positively falls into a trance, and seespeople in distant countries, and foretells events to come? Thatis the Second Sight, is it not?"

"That is the Second Sight, captain. And that is, really andpositively, what she does."

"The young lady who is dancing opposite to us?"

"The young lady who is dancing opposite to us."

The captain waited a little--letting the new flood of informationwhich had poured in on him settle itself steadily in his mind.This process accomplished, the Arctic explorer proceededresolutely on his way to further discoveries.

"May I ask, ma'am, if you have ever seen her in a state of trancewith your own eyes?" he inquired.

"My sister and I both saw her in the trance, little more than amonth since," Mrs. Crayford replied. "She had been nervous andirritable all the morning; and we took her out into the garden tobreathe the fresh air. Suddenly, without any reason for it, thecolor left her face. She stood between us, insensible to touch,insensible to sound; motionless as stone, and cold as death in amoment. The first change we noticed came after a lapse of someminutes. Her hands began to move slowly, as if she was groping inthe dark. Words dropped one by one from her lips, in a lost,vacant tone, as if she was talking in her sleep. Whether what shesaid referred to past or future I cannot tell you. She spoke ofpersons in a foreign country--perfect strangers to my sister andto me. After a little interval, she suddenly became silent. Amomentary color appeared in her face, and left it again. Her eyesclosed--her feet failed her--and she sank insensible into ourarms."

"Sank insensible into your arms," repeated the captain, absorbinghis new information. "Most extraordinary! And--in this state ofhealth--she goes out to parties, and dances. More extraordinarystill!"

"You are entirely mistaken," said Mrs. Crayford. "She is onlyhere to-night to please me; and she is only dancing to please myhusband. As a rule, she shuns all society. The doctor recommendschange and amusement for her. She won't listen to him. Except onrare occasions like this, she persists in remaining at home."

Captain Helding brightened at the allusion to the doctor.Something practical might be got out of the doctor. Scientificman. Sure to see this very obscure subject under a new light."How does it strike the doctor now?" said the captain. "Viewedsimply as a Case, ma'am, how does it strike the doctor?"

"He will give no positive opinion," Mrs. Crayford answered. "Hetold me that such cases as Clara's were by no means unfamiliar tomedical practice. 'We know,' he told me, 'that certain disorderedconditions of the brain and the nervous system produce resultsquite as extraordinary as any that you have described--and thereour knowledge ends. Neither my science nor any man's science canclear up the mystery in this case. It is an especially difficultcase to deal with, because Miss Burnham's early associationsdispose her to attach a superstitious importance to themalady--the hysterical malady as some doctors would call it--fromwhich she suffers. I can give you instructions for preserving hergeneral health; and I can recommend you to try some change in herlife--provided you first relieve her mind of any secret anxietiesthat may possibly be preying on it.'"

The captain smiled self-approvingly. The doctor had justified hisanticipations. The doctor had suggested a practical solution ofthe difficulty.

"Ay! ay! At last we have hit the nail on the h ead! Secretanxieties. Yes! yes! Plain enough now. A disappointment inlove--eh, Mrs. Crayford?"

"I don't know, Captain Helding; I am quite in the dark. Clara'sconfidence in me--in other matters unbounded--is, in this matterof her (supposed) anxieties, a confidence still withheld. In allelse we are like sisters. I sometimes fear there may indeed besome trouble preying secretly on her mind. I sometimes feel alittle hurt at her incomprehensible silence."

Captain Helding was ready with his own practical remedy for thisdifficulty.

"Encouragement is all she wants, ma'am. Take my word for it, thismatter rests entirely with you. It's all in a nutshell. Encourageher to confide in you--and she _will_ confide."

"I am waiting to encourage her, captain, until she is left alonewith me--after you have all sailed for the Arctic seas. In themeantime, will you consider what I have said to you as intendedfor your ear only? And will you forgive me, if I own that theturn the subject has taken does not tempt me to pursue it anyfurther?"

The captain took the hint. He instantly changed the subject;choosing, on this occasion, safe professional topics. He spoke ofships that were ordered on foreign service; and, finding thatthese as subjects failed to interest Mrs. Crayford, he spoke nextof ships that were ordered home again. This last experimentproduced its effect--an effect which the captain had notbargained for.

"Do you know," he began, "that the _Atalanta_ is expected backfrom the West Coast of Africa every day? Have you anyacquaintances among the officers of that ship?"

As it so happened, he put those questions to Mrs. Crayford whilethey were engaged in one of the figures of the dance whichbrought them within hearing of the opposite couple. At the samemoment--to the astonishment of her friends and admirers--MissClara Burnham threw the quadrille into confusion by making amistake! Everybody waited to see her set the mistake right. Shemade no attempt to set it right--she turned deadly pale andcaught her partner by the arm.

"The heat!" she said, faintly. "Take me away--take me into theair!"

Lieutenant Crayford instantly led her out of the dance, and tookher into the cool and empty conservatory, at the end of the room.As a matter of course, Captain Helding and Mrs. Crayford left thequadrille at the same time. The captain saw his way to a joke.

"Is this the trance coming on?" he whispered. "If it is, ascommander of the Arctic expedition, I have a particular requestto make. Will the Second Sight oblige me by seeing the shortestway to the Northwest Passage, before we leave England?"

Mrs. Crayford declined to humor the joke. "If you will excuse myleaving you," she said quietly, "I will try and find out what isthe matter with Miss Burnham."

At the entrance to the conservatory, Mrs. Crayford encounteredher husband. The lieutenant was of middle age, tall and comely. Aman with a winning simplicity and gentleness in his manner, andan irresistible kindness in his brave blue eyes. In one word, aman whom everybody loved--including his wife.

"Don't be alarmed," said the lieutenant. "The heat has overcomeher--that's all."

Mrs. Crayford shook her head, and looked at her husband, halfsatirically, half fondly.

"You dear old innocent!" she exclaimed, "that excuse may do for_you_. For my part, I don't believe a word of it. Go and getanother partner, and leave Clara to me."

She entered the conservatory and seated herself by Clara's side.