rhaps she fears your influence over your brother. At any rate, your
duty lies there. When it is time to do so, don't consult her or
anyone; take possession of your former apartments, and stand by your
brother in his hour of need."

Miss Arthur promised to comply with her lover's request, and he
managed at last to escape from her, and seek the repose which he
preferred to such society.

All this time John Arthur was a prisoner in the west wing. He was
attended by the doctor sometimes, by Celine occasionally, and by Henry
almost constantly since the arrival of that sable individual.

Lucian Davlin, having no taste for the work, kept aloof as much as
possible. Himself and Dr. Le Guise, as he called his confederate, had
labored hard and, with the assistance of old Hagar, had put the rooms
in proper condition for the occupancy of a lunatic. And a lunatic John
Arthur certainly was. Once before his removal, and once since, he had
been seized with a paroxysm of undeniable insanity.

John Arthur had been, and still was, the dupe of his supposed
brother-in-law and Dr. Le Guise. We have all heard of natures that can
be frightened into sickness, almost into dying; of an imaginary
disease. John Arthur's was one of these. And, with a little aid from
Dr. Le Guise, he had been really quite ill.

Henry had been constituted his keeper, a position which he filled with
reluctance, and there was a fair prospect that sooner or later he
would break into open mutiny. Although he could not guess at the
nature of the game his master was playing, yet he felt assured that it
was something desperate, if not dangerous.

He had promised "his young lady," as he called Madeline, to remain in
Mr. Davlin's service until she bade him withdraw, and but for this
would hardly have submitted to remain John Arthur's keeper on any
terms. Henry had a certain pride of his own, and that pride was in
revolt against this new servitude.

He had not met Cora here, and had no idea that she was an inmate of
the house.

Dr. Le Guise had relieved Henry on the morning of the day that Miss
Arthur ventured, for the first time since her flight, within the walls
of Oakley manor, escorted by Mr. Percy. He had detected some signs of
fever, although Mr. Arthur declared himself feeling better, and
administered a powder to check it.

Soon the patient began to show signs of increasing restlessness, and
by the time Henry appeared to announce that Miss Arthur desired an
in