Neither my science nor any man's science can clear up the mystery in this case.
It is an especially difficult case to deal with, because Miss Burnham's early associations dispose her to attach a superstitious importance to the malady--the hysterical malady as some doctors would call it--from which she suffers.

I can give you instructions for preserving her general health; and I can recommend you to try some change in her life--provided you first relieve her mind of any secret anxieties that may possibly be preying on it.'" The captain smiled self-approvingly.

The doctor had justified his anticipations.

The doctor had suggested a practical solution of the difficulty.
"Ay! ay! At last we have hit the nail on the head! Secret anxieties.
Yes! yes! Plain enough now.

A disappointment in love--eh, Mrs.
Crayford ?" "I don't know, Captain Helding; I am quite in the dark.