Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1896-12-14
CHAPTER VI.
THE SECRET KEPT.

1t is needless to say that when | awoke
the next morning my first thought was
Of Philippa; but my first action was to
go to my window and look at the skies.
My heart sank within me as | saw that
the snow had ceased falling, and the
Wintry sun was shining. / threw UP the
sash; the cold air cut me like knife.
/ gathered up a handful of snow from
the window SILL 1t crumbled in my fin
gers like tooth powder. | guessed at
once that hard. black frost had sue
ceeded the snow. | ran downstairs and
glanced at my thermometer outside my
sitting room window. 1t registered L
degrees of frost. My spirits rose; | felt
that Philippa would be saved. The
wind was due east; so long as it stayed
there the frost would last, and that white
tomb on the roadside hide the secret of
the dreadful night.
l found, moreover, that Philippa's con-
dition was all that could, under the cir
cumstances, be hoped for. Since she had
awakened from that long sleep into
which the opiate had plunged her, there
had been no recurrence of the delusions;
no symptoms which gave me any alarm.
She was, of course, weak in body, but
quite quiet and collected. She spoke but
little, and the few words which she did
speak had no bearing on forbidden or dis
turbing subjects.
Day after day went by, and still the
brave black frost held the world in it's
iron grip, and kept the secret of the
night. Morning after morning l woke
to find the wind still blowing from the
east, the skies clear and showing every
evidence of long spell of hard weather.
A presentiment that we would be saved
was now firmly established in my mind.
The heavens themselves seemed to be
shielding us and working for us.
| have not given the year in which
1,rv+ n
remember that mighty fall of snow, and
the time which the frost kept it on the
earth. will be able to fix the date. Since
that year there has been no weather like
il.
Day by day Philippa grew better and
stronger. | spare you, as l promised to-,
all description which is not absolutely
necessary of my treatment OF my patient
and all technical summary OF the case;
but before many days had gone by.
I knew that, as / hoped, | had to deal
with one Of those rare instances in which
the balance of the mind is restored by
forced sleep, and the complete restoration
of health is but a matter of time and
care.
AS soon as it became a certainty that
all danger to life and reason was at an
end, began to consider what course to
adopt The moment she was well enough
to risk the journey, or even it thaw set
in, before then, Philippa must fly from
the scene of the tragedy in which she
had played so terrible, yet morally ire
sponsible, a part. We must put lands
and seas between ourselves and the fatal
spot. But how should [ persuade her
that such flight was absolutely necessary?
Brother and sister, as we now termed
ourselves, would she ever consent. to ac-
company me abroad? Had [ the right
to put the woman | loved in such an
equiyocal position? No! a thousand
times no! And yet | knew there was no
safety for her in England and with
whom could she leave England save with
me?
1 dare not urge upon her my true
reason for fight. 1t was my greatest
hope that the events of that night had
left her mind when the madness left her,
never to be recalled. And now time was
pressing: ten days had passed by. The
glorious frost still kept our counsel, but it
could not last forever. The time must
come when the white heaps of snow
would melt and vanish away, and then
Sir Meryyn Ferrand's cold dead face
would appear. and tell the tale of his
death to the first passerby.
60 be Continued)