s escape. He left instructions and
prescriptions galore. Sophy suffered this with perfect tranquillity,
because she knew that Gaynor had already had other instructions and
would follow only those of the physician in whose authority he believed.

When her mother-in-law also took her departure, Sophy turned to Gaynor,
who had been summoned again to convey Lady Wychcote's parting messages
to her son.

She smiled a very weary, kind smile at the little grey servitor, and
said:

"I'm afraid we shall have to fight it out pretty much alone together,
Gaynor."

Then Gaynor emerged from his shell of reserve for an instant, and
startled himself.

"The Almighty is very powerful, madam," is what he said.

XVII

Sophy's chief object now was to have a clear, plain talk with her
husband. She knew how painful and trying to them both this interview
would be, and longed to have it over. Later in the day, when Chesney was
again asleep, she sent for Gaynor and asked him for the explanation that
she had mentioned that morning. He told her that the habit had really
begun with an attack of jungle fever, or rather had been taken up as an
alleviation of the nervousness, dull aching, and violent headaches that
had followed the fever. On the voyage back to England, the ship's doctor
had given Chesney a hypodermic of morphia to quiet one of these brain
headaches that had lasted for twenty-four hours. He gave it with the
usual warnings that such drugs were never to be tampered with, never
taken unless at the express command of a physician. But somehow Gaynor
had felt uneasy, even then--had had a presentiment, as he might say, in
fact. Mr. Chesney had looked so quiet and mocking at the doctor. He had
said afterwards to Gaynor:

"Those doctor chaps are a class of fools all to themselves, Gaynor. They
prescribe a bit of heaven--then order you to stay snug in hell." Mrs.
Chesney would please kindly pardon his (Gaynor's) plain speaking. Those
were the exact words that Mr. Chesney had used. When they reached
London, Mr. Chesney had at once bought a fitted hypodermic-syringe--that
is, a little case containing a syringe, needles, and tiny bottles of
morphia, apo-morphia, strychnine, and cocaine. The cocaine he had used
only during the past few months. At first he had put this case in
Gaynor's charge--only demanding it when one of those violent headaches
came on. This stage had lasted for about a year (the year of her
marriage with him Soph