om over-squeamish in other respects," he
said. "He has certainly hastened matters, but he is not responsible for
the evil itself. That has been germinating during the whole of her
life."

"And--that--was why Sir Kersley jilted her mother?" Olga spoke in a low,
detached voice. She seemed to be trying to grasp a situation that eluded
her.

"It was." Max answered with a return to his customary brevity; his tone
was not without bitterness. "Kersley was merciful enough to think of the
next generation. He was a doctor, and he knew that hereditary madness is
the greatest evil--save one--in the world. Therefore he sacrificed his
happiness."

"What is the greatest evil?" she asked, still with the air of bringing
herself painfully back as it were from a long distance.

He was watching her shrewdly as he answered. "Hereditary vice--crime."

"Is crime hereditary?"

"In nine cases out of ten--yes."

"And that is worse than--madness?"

"I should say much worse."

"I see." She passed a hand across her eyes, and very suddenly she
shivered and seemed to awake. "Oh, is it quite hopeless?" she asked him
piteously. "Are you sure?"

"It is quite hopeless," he said.

"She can never be herself again--not even by a miracle?"

"Such miracles don't happen," said Max, with grim decision. "It is much
the same as a person going blind. There are occasional gleams for a
little while, but the end is total darkness. That is all that can be
expected now." He added, a hint of compassion mingling with the
repression of his voice: "It is better that you should know the whole
truth. It's not fair to bolster you up with false hopes. You can help
now--if you have the strength. You won't be able to help later."

"But I will never leave her!" Olga said.

"My dear child," he made answer, "in a very little while she won't even
know you. She will be--as good as dead."

"Surely she would be better dead!" she cried passionately.

"God knows," said Max.

He spoke with more feeling than he usually permitted himself, and at
once changed the subject. "What we are at present concerned in is to
make her temporarily better. Now you know this stuff?" He took a bottle
from his pocket. "I am going to put it in your charge. Give her a
teaspoonful now in a wine-glass of water, as you did before. I hope it
will make her sleep. If it doesn't, give her a second dose in half an
hour. But if she goes off without that second dose, all the better.
Remember, it i