The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-08

phrase, either. L can quite understand
that you. didn't. Please go on, Mrs.
''For a great while she seemed to me on
the verge of complete prostration. / be-
Aeyed her mind was going, and vet, now
and then, she would act with such entire
sanity that again strongly doubted il.
she would never leave the two little rooms,
mine and hers, which were connected by a
door. Sometimes she would pace the
floors of both for an hour and more. with
her hands clasped and her face the picture
OF despair. She would never tell me Just
what it was You had done to her. She
would merely shake her head and promise
me; in trembling tones, that she would
make 1t all plain by and by"
And meanwhile" said Sylvan, with
hueless face and voice full Of irony, ''you
were very willing to take on trust any evil
tidings regarding my treatment of her.
But once more pardon me. ] interrupt
you too much"
oh" cried Mrs. Calderly, "you make
my task bitterer than it is! You heap
horrid reproaches on me by your sarcasms.
pitied Lucia-that was ell. meant to
advise her returning to you as soon as her
mind got back its lost balance. She re-
fused, with great obstinacy. to see doctor.
Then she fell into a brooding state, and
grew still more alarmed dreading the
melancholy form of madness This was
violent. and talked of you, with a flask of
white liquid, waiting somewhere either to
pour IT down her throat or inject it into
her blood, and SO poison her."
"Ahi" gasped Sylvan. He rose, and his
pale face seemed to grow paler, while 4
which his dead mother, had she heard it,
might have Iikened to an echo of his dead
fathers what more, please-what
more?'
THE doctor whom called in couldn't
quite grasp her case, he said. She had
grown quieter by the time he saw her.
She had yielded TO my persuasion and
my servants, and had let US put her to
bed. The doctor gave her some sort of
soothing medicine, and left her. That
night was very nervous and hardly slept
wink. The next day she seemed good
deal better until afternoon, when she be-
gan TO have the same hallucination about
you and begged me to lock the
doors of the bedroom and put the keys in
my pocket. But l had no sooner done
this than she began to shake with fear
that you might be hidden somewhere in
the room itself, with the flask of white
poison-it was always the flask of white
poison. / obeyed this second mt
of mania. She had never been at all vio-
lent that day, and later, when the doctor
came, she produced in both him and my
self the belief that she was now truly on
the verge of a marked change for the
better. He encouraged me, and said he
her pass tranquil night. (Oh, I've
never felt till now, with all my re
spect for the wonders of science, what
gness-work, what empiricism, is the craft
of all physicians, and how there's nothing
certain about them except when they're
surgeons, though surgery may Kill as often
evening-last Wednesday evening, it was
she had fallen into placid sleep. was
dEeadfnlly tired, and lay down in my own
room, 20 near hers that believed the
least call from her weu3d MAks me. But 4
mnst have slept very heavily Indeed, and !
certainly slept much longer than
kind of start. / wakened, my first impulse
was 70 seek her room"
Here Mrs. Calderly rose, and again
clasped her hands, this time with suppli-
eating fervor. IL didn't find her there,
Sylvan! She'd risen and somehow dressed
herself Cor certain of her clothes were
missing) and she'd gone from the house."
Gone from the housed And you've not
heard of her SINGER"
He hurried UP to Mrs. Calderly and
grasped the wretched little lady's wrist.
"This happened last Wednesday night, and
since then you've had no news of her
none?"
"None."
"And you dare to say it-you dare to say
itw The sorrow in Sylvan's face was
strongly mixed with wrath. "All this
time you never sent for me2 All this
timen
I'D spoken to the police. 1t was only
about an hour ago that they brought me
word that they had not hit upon the least
clue, and doubted if they could ever reach
one. | wanted TO spare you as long as 1
could, Sylvan"
He shot into her speech laugh that was
replete with mockery. "Ah," he cried, as
he fell rather than sank into the chair
he had quilted, you've certainly spared
me all alongl 1 ought TO feel overbur-
dened with gratitude for the mercy you've
shown mel"
ITO he CONTINUED