He quitted the room so seriously alarmed about her that he resolved to go to the doctor privately and question him on the spot.

There was an unspeakable dread in his mind that the nervous attack from which she had been pronounced to be suffering might be a mere phrase intended to prepare him for the future disclosure of something infinitely and indescribably worse.
The doctor, on hearing Mr.Carling's report, exhibited no surprise and held to his opinion.

Her nervous system was out of order, and her husband had been needlessly frightened by a hysterical paroxysm.

If she did not get better in a week, change of scene might then be tried.

In the meantime, there was not the least cause for alarm.
On the next day she was quieter, but she hardly spoke at all.