Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-10-08
AN INHERITED faint.


"Cclia." | cried, as l hurried up the
turret stair. Celia! for the love OF
heaven come back"
But my daughters 1.-THE young limbs
were too quick for me. She turned a
deaf ear TO my appeal. and when !
reached the room which she occupied at
the top Of the tower, it was to find it
shut and bolted in my face. | drummed
heIplessly on the age-backened oak.
1T is no use, mother" came back the
clear, vibrant tones from within; Il ann
really not mad. and | wish to be alone
for little while"
Without entering upon q futile argu-
mept ending in recriminations that would
have cut me to the heart. l descended
the winding stone steps and made my
way to the library There | sat down
in the big chair by the fire ard brooded
over the trouble | had borne so long
alone.
1t was going to burst upon me at last.
was assured, the storm | had dreaded
IN years, for the first l4'emonitions of
which | had waited in continuous agony
since CeIia's birth; SINCE, in fact, the
dreadful night when they came and took
my dear husband to the asylum where,
three years later, he had diei-happily
died, l have always felt justified in
thinking. after all the terror that went
before
| have often wondered how l survived
That awful second year of my married
le, beginning, as it did, with MY Lance
lots accident in the hunting field, cun-
tinuing with his ever growing homicidal
mania, directed for the most part against
myself, and ending. on the day that
should have made me a happy mother,
in his having to be plaecd.under restraint.
But though ! had lived through it all, Z
it was to become a sorrowful woman,
weighed down with the haunting fear
that her fathers nlalady would sooner or
later show itself in my winsome Celia.
fhe thing mad grown to lie u nightmare
with me From morning to night, as the
wears passed, | had Lecn watching for
signs OF mental disorgarization in my
daughters sweet face; Eer slightest ac-
lions had been scrutinized by ne for the
first trace of eccent1icity.
A month before the event | am mar
rating, | had noticed little thirg-two
little things, in fact; both quite un
worthy ct attention in any one not .Htol.
to hereditary faint, but viewed by me in
Celia's ease as veritable danger signals.
First | observed a strange brightness
in her eyes and Il restlessncss in her
eyes and n rcstlesSness in her movements
quite foreign to her usual placid de-
meanor, and utterly unaccountable.
Since my great trouble we had lived Il
hermit life at Wrangwyn Chase. seeing
10 one bat cur family physician. Dr. Aer-
RAM. ] had felt it my duty deliberately
to seclGde ourselves because Of nsr rooted
conviction that Celia must never marry.
To hand down to unborn babes that IN
speakable curse would be n crime at
which | could never counive. My dau1h-
ter, my beautiful, high spirited daughter
should be isolated till, if God spared me
so long to safeguard her, her eyes dimmed
and hei fair checks faded.
There had been no relaxing OF my rigid
rule against the reception of strangers or
the straying of Celia beyond the confines
OF the park, and | was therefore at
loss to find cause for tine change in her
The other deviation from the ordered
custom of our regular life had been
tendency on Celia's part % withdraw
from my society and spend much of her
time alone in her bedroom at the top of
the western turret. Especially had this
been the case in the twilight hours be-
tween tea and dinner On my rcmo,r
straurg with her and pressing for her
reason for SO shutting herself up, she
had given answers at first evasivc and
finally defiant.
And now she had thrown off all pre-
tcnce OF self-restraint and had confirmed
my suspicious by the Wild abandon OF
her reply to my latest protest On my
calling her back as she was leaving the
library after tea, she had flung back the
mpudcnt reioindcr
Nv hat nonsense, mother, Are Won
afraid that some one will come courting
me ut the top of the west towcrg"
And then She had run away with that
in her eye that had caused me to follow
only, as | have related. TO Dc out dis
tanccd by her As She raced up the tueret
stairs
Wen. on one thing at least l could con
graduate myself. The quick intuition
which had led me to notice the alteration
IN my daughters manner and habits had
also prompted me to take precautions for
her safety So far. thank God. She hal
shown no symptoms OF her fathers hoIni.
cidal tendencies; hat | had feared that
up there, in the solitude OF her room. She
might fall a prey, in some paroxysm OF
nania, to an irresistible longing for self.
destruction. 1t WAS even possible that
she had taken to shutting herself no with
SUeh an end in view
| had therefore given orders for the
window in her turret chamber. from
which my husband had once tried to
burl me. tc he protected with iron bars.
Unly that afternoon had the work beer.
done during cur absence while strnllng
in the park Celia knew nothing of it vet.
and probably would not know till ths