other physicians have given it up, and say that Love will be
an idiot for life. He is sure that if the bullet could be removed, he
would be restored; but I will not permit them to cut into the poor boy's
head, and perhaps destroy his life as well as his reason," she often
complained, until the old doctor gave up all hopes of gaining her
consent to the operation that he wished performed.

But he still came to visit Love in a friendly way, although the young
man continued in the same state of seeming hopeless idiocy, never
improving with the lapse of time, until, in desperation, the old man,
with Franklin's assistance, concocted a daring scheme.

He had read with contempt and abhorrence the mind of the woman, and knew
that she wished to keep her step-son in his present state, and that no
proposition looking to his cure would be entertained by the selfish
creature who wished to keep her grip on the young man's property. She
would rather see him dead than restored to his rich dower of brains and
wealth.

So when, late in March, she was first informed by Franklin, and
afterward by Doctor Platt himself, of a change for the worse in the
patient, she was more pleased than sorry.

Love's condition was changing, they said, from simple idiocy to active
insanity that would necessitate his removal from Ellsworth to a place of
close confinement.

"He may develop at any moment a homicidal mania, and prove terribly
dangerous to his attendants. Indeed, Franklin has grown nervous already
over some of his more violent moods, and threatens to resign his place,"
said Doctor Platt.

This was indeed most welcome news for Mrs. Ellsworth. Nothing except
Love's death could have pleased her better.

Though she had been fond of him once, his opposition to her will, and
his contempt of her two favorite nieces, had turned her lukewarm
fondness to active hate.

So it was hard for her to assume a look of concern when it was all she
could do to keep from openly rejoicing. She dropped her face in her
hands to keep the keen old doctor from openly reading its expression.

"It is a very delicate and peculiar case," continued Doctor Platt. "You
can not place him in an idiot asylum, because he is not now an
idiot--yet his lunacy is not developed enough to commit him for lunacy.
At the same time, he may become violent at any time and--do murder! It
is not right to keep him at Ellsworth with such terrible risks attached
to his staying. I have a plan