ve was buried in the grave of the wife of his
youth. It did not easily occur to him to suspect himself of any weakness
with regard to this patient of his, little more than a child in years.
It did not at once suggest itself to him that she, in her strange,
excited condition, might fasten her wandering thoughts upon him, too far
removed by his age, as it seemed, to strike the fancy of a young girl
under almost any conceivable conditions.

Thus it was that many of those beautiful summer evenings found him
sitting by his patient, the river rippling and singing beneath them, the
moon shining over them, sweet odors from the thickets on the banks of the
stream stealing in on the soft air that came through the open window, and
every time they were thus together, the subtile influence which bound
them to each other bringing them more and more into inexplicable
harmonies and almost spiritual identity.

But all this did not hinder the development of new and strange conditions
in Myrtle Hazard. Her will was losing its power. "I cannot help
it"--the hysteric motto--was her constant reply. It is not pleasant to
confess the truth, but she was rapidly undergoing a singular change of
her moral nature. She had been a truthful child. If she had kept her
secret about what she had found in the garret, she thought she was
exercising her rights, and she had never been obliged to tell any lies
about it.

But now she seemed to have lost the healthy instincts for veracity and
honesty. She feigned all sorts of odd symptoms, and showed a wonderful
degree of cunning in giving an appearance of truth to them. It became
next to impossible to tell what was real and what was simulated. At one
time she could not be touched ever so lightly without shrinking and
crying out. At another time she would squint, and again she would be
half paralyzed for a time. She would pretend to fast for days, living on
food she had concealed and took secretly in the night.

The nurse was getting worn out. Kitty Fagan would have had the priest
come to the house and sprinkle it with holy water. The two women were
beginning to get nervous themselves. The Rev. Mr. Stoker said in
confidence to Miss Silence, that there was reason to fear she might have
been given over for a time to the buffetings of Satan, and that perhaps
his (Mr. Stoker's) personal attentions might be useful in that case. And
so it appeared that the "young doctor" was the only being left with w