Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-02-19

'You are at any rate spared one OF
the difficulties which harassed me, y
said the latter at last. You have
been able to choose a side as it were
in this matter, instead of being haunt
, ed by the paralyZing conviction that
whatever movement you made on be
half Of one person in whom you took
deep interest, must necessarily harm
another whom you were equally bound
by ties Of honour and affection to
protect" He glanced at a pile OF
papers which lay on the table at his
left hand; some Of them were neatly
tied together, some unfolded, as if he
had recently been handling them
These papers, at whatever time OF the
day Armathwaite saw him, were sci
dom absent from the old doctors side
and it was easy to guess that they had
, reference to the subject which so deep
ly Dreyed upon his mind. tAphra
KiIdonan's father" continued Dr..
Peele, gave NE the start in life that
I am giving you: and it was my sense
Of the weight, upon a man OF honour
OF such an obligation, which made me
so DESTROYS of fastening my own re-
sponsibility upon a man whom l could
trust Are you anxious, knowing so
much as you do, to draw back from the
post?"
con the contrary" answered Armath-
waite fervently. 4 have conceived
rightly or wrongly, that I was brought
here for the express purpose of releas-
ing Alma COsmont from the unhappy
circumstances in which she is placed
and I can honestly say it is the object
I have at present more at heart than
] anything in the world Dr.. Peele, you
must surely agree with me that her
mind is in danger. You have influence
with CrosmCnt; he is anxious to retain
your good opinion. Can you not in
! duce him to send his wife away for a
! time?"
DR.. Peele looked at the young man
with solemn, plaintive earnestness
and shook his head.
NO" said he; ito save her would
| be to put Aphra in danger, and I am
! bound by oath to her father to stand
/ by her at all costs"
/ ITO stand by Lady Kildonan?"
yes"
And the danger for her-what is
that?"
An. It is a secret which nobody il
! the world knows except herself and
me-"
Her husband. Doesn't he know
doesn't he suspect it?'
NO. You shall learn it in gooC
time; but we will take the other story
! first-Alma's." He paused, arranging
the materials of his narrative in his
mind. Then he began in a low
monotonOus voice. TWENTY-FIVE years
ago and the house where Ned eros
mont and MS wife live was, as you
: know, a private Iunatic asylum, where
only a few patients were kept, who
paid very well, and were, | can answer
! for it, treated very kindly. The house
belonged to a relation Of mine, a doe
/ tor of reputation and ability, who hat
/ given up a practice in London to estab
/ Iish this place in which to try a new
system of his own. One result of his
system certainly was that very few
of the people in the neighb0rhood ha(
any suspicion what the malady was
from which his patients suffered,
had already been Established some
years in Branksom when h. Dough
this house and started this thing;
and as we had always been very goot
friends, I now spent much Of my time
with him and heard the history Of each
one of the patients, about whose cases
we had frequent consultations. One
man in particular reused a deep inter
est in me. He was a musician an(
composer, a Withholding person, witt
wide-open blue eyes and madden man
ners than any lunatic I ever saw. II
spite of this, however, I conceived the
idea, very early in our acquaintance
! that he was at least as sane as l. He
/ fascinated me, and I spent hour aftel
hour with him, listening to his playins
he played every instrument, and al
equally well-or to his fiery, en-
| thusiastic accounts of his researches
in philosophy, in mystical religions
in mesmerism. He had travelled il
/ every part of the world, he spoke
, eight languages, and the only sign O.
a delusion l could ever detect in hin
was an uncertainty as to what country
had given him birth. Sometimes ht
would speak of himself as a Pole, a
others as a Spaniard; he would say O.
a Hungarian air that it recalled hi;
native land, and the next moment al
lude to his childhood as having beer
passed in Norway.
TYPHOID