t
she had hesitated even long enough for these thoughts to flash through
her brain.

"The boy uses opium," she said without equivocation.

The bare naming of the drug rolled up the curtain before the whole
tragedy which had been suggested by the portrait in the library; it
explained every detail of this wild night except her presence here
practically alone with the crazed young man. It accounted for her
objection to waiting in the drugstore; it solved the mystery of her
fear of the city shadows. Had he suspected this, he would no more have
allowed her to go up those stairs alone than he would have permitted
her to go unescorted into the cell of a madman.

"I 'm sorry for him," he murmured. "Then he has gone straight to Mott
Street?"

"I 'm afraid so. He has been there once before."

"The habit has been long upon him?"

"It is inherited. This is the third generation," she admitted, turning
her head aside in shame.

"But he himself--"

"Only after his father's death. The father feared this and watched him
every minute. He died thinking the danger was passed, but he left me a
prescription which had been of help to him. It was given him by our
old family physician who has since died. Mr. Barstow knew Dr. Emory
and so has always prepared it for me."

"How long this last time did he go without the drug?"

"It is three months since the first attack. This medicine tided him
over five days. He was nervous to-night and begged me to go out to
dinner with him. I 'm afraid it was unwise--the lights and the music
excited him."

"But you have n't been here alone with him?"

"There is Marie."

"Two women alone with a man in that condition--it is n't safe."

"You don't understand how good he has been. He has struggled hard. He
has allowed me to lock him up--to do everything to help him. He has
never been like this before."

"It is n't safe for you," he repeated. "Are there no relatives I may
summon?"

"None," she answered. "I am his cousin--his sister by adoption. There
are no other relatives."

"No friends?"

"I would rather fight it out alone," she answered firmly. "I don't
wish my friends to know about this," she added hastily, as though to
avoid further discussion along this line.

"It was careless of me to leave the door open as I went in."

"It was lucky for you. He might have--"

"Don't!" she shuddered.

He waited a moment.

"You are brave," he declared, "but this is too big a