The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-17

ing. We bathed his feet in hot water, put q
bladder filed with ice around his head, every
half hour the doctor administered teaspoon
full of the potion he had prepared, and sat
at the bedside, holding and stroking the poor
patients hands, but he chung to me with the
touching confidence with which the child
clings to its mother.
Well, after days of anxious nursing we
brought him through alive, at last, but through
such depths of despair as it has never been
my lot to witness in any one else since. I'm
mediately that the first effects of the liquor
had subsidized, he grew as gentle as child,
entreated my forgiveness with an abJectness
and q self-crimination that were painful, and
hung upon my looks and motions with an IN
tensity that would have embarrassed me had
he been less weak and wretched, less in need
of every loving word that could be spoken or
act that could be done. With the devil of
drink cast out of him, he was an angel once
again.
When he was sufficiently restored to be
able to sit up and converse at length-whlch
was not until after the lapse of a week. told
him what / had done, viz.:-That from some
papers and memorandum-books l had found
among his clothes, had learned the address
of his wife, and had written to her. L can
never hope to make you realize the express
sion of despair which deepened upon his
gentle, handsome face when told him this.
After looking at me intently for a monent
with trembling lips, he clasped his hands, let
them fall idly upon his knees, and bending
his head low, while the tears coursed
down his cheeks, asked simply whether
there was any answer
There had been no anSwer-a fact at winch
I was somewhat surprised myself A week
more passed, and my patient had passed from
convalescence to health, and still no answer
came. Meanwhile his money was drained,
and Mr.. Hillary was evidently anxious to
conceal from me his brother-in-law's address
in the city. All the other boarders in the
house intimated that 1 was a fool for my
pains. My most intimate friend, Mrs. Pim-
perley, who had lived with me ever since
had taken boarders, openly declared that she
believed was fond of drunken men, and as
for Major Stemstand-a gentleman who had
the suite of rooms on the second floor, and
whom 1 could least afford to lose-he told me
in confidence that if Mr.. Hillary didn't leave
the house, he would. But then 1 knew he
was only joking. To think of the Major
pretending to get along without me!
At length there came an answer-a brief
note addressed to me from Mrs. Hillary. 1t
was very politely but very distantly worded,
and most cold in tone. She made charming
little apology for her husbands conduct, ex-
planned that his case was quite hopeless; that
she had not given up all attempts to live with
him until the thing had repeatedly proved
itself an impossibility; but that Mr.. Hillary
was quite aware of the sole condition on
which she would again consentto to reside under
the same roof with him as his wife. That
condition was that no intoxicating beverage
of any kind should pass his lips for two years,
and that those two years should be passed
outside the walls of the asylum.
Outside the walls of the asylum 1 shud-
dered at these words. Could it be that this
unhappy being, so fair, so noble, SO intel
lectual, so innately good as 1 felt he must be,
could ever have been classed with those mad
men or miscreants, call them what you will,
whom the justice of society relegates to the
custody of bolt and bar Determined to
clear up the mystery, and to learn all now
that know so much, 1 handed the letter to
Mr.. Tillary, and watched him while he read it..
Then at last, I learned the truth, though
it was told me piecemeal, with faltering
tongue, and frame quivering with deep
emotion. And his story was this:-That the
habit of intoxication had beset him for the
past fifteen years. until it had grown with
him monomania; that he had wearied and
worn out the patience of every friend he had
in the world, not omitting his own wife; that
in one of his fits of semi-consciousness he
had signed papers which had for ever taken
away from him the control of his own pro-
perty, which was large, and handed it over to
his brother-in-law, the gentleman who had
called upon me; that finally, one day, more
than year ago, upon recovering from a pro.
found lethargy, induced by intoxication, he
had found himself within the walls of a pri
vate insane asylum, spoken of by its pro.
prietor by the more euphemistic title OF
HaiSOD de S0Hte, that he was kept close
prisoner there by reason of the physician
certificate that had been procured, until the
proprietor of the place had no good excuse
for OBTAINING him longer, and had pronounced
him cured for the time being; that his bro.
ther-in-law had voluntarily supplied him with
money and offered to procure rooms for him
at my house, assuring him that his wife
should join him there; that this was conspi-
racy between the brother and sister for once
more getting him under lock and key, for