For the first time in his life he had tried the Cure seriously on himself--chance never having given him cause before--and it had failed.

He had heard the Cure which he regarded as a divine unction termed a pestilential quackery; the words burned red-hot in his brain.

He had heard it depreciated, with charming tact and courtesy, by a great authority on diseases of the skin.

One short word, "no," had wiped out of existence his Napoleonic scheme for the Armies of the World--for putting them on a sound footing.

He smiled bitterly as the incongruous jest passed through his mind.
He had been fighting for months, and losing ground; but this was the first absolute check that his faith had received.