ltation which he had experienced once when given chloroform for a
slight operation. Directly the idea of repeating that blissful
sensation seized upon him he was mad for it. To go out of life like
that, to take that way of opening the window into eternity, into
another phase of existence or into oblivion, what ecstasy! He
remembered that when under the chloroform, a wonderful certainty, a
comprehension, seemingly, of the true import of life and death and of
the hereafter, had seized him. He remembered a tremendous assurance
which he had received under the influence of the drug, of the
ultimate joy beyond this present existence, of the ultimate end in
bliss of all misery, of the tending of death to the fulness of life.
He remembered a rapture beyond words, an enthusiasm of gratitude for
such an immortal delight for the power which he had sometimes
rebelled against and reviled for placing him in the scale of
existence. He remembered how all his past troubles seemed as only
stepping-stones to supernal heights, how he could have kissed them
for thankfulness that he had been forced by an all-wise Providence
over the agony of the ascent to such rapture. Immediately his
thoughts centred upon chloroform. He looked across at the divan with
its heaped-up pillows, and his mind, acting always from suggestion,
became filled with the picture of his peaceful bed up-stairs, and
himself lying thereon, oblivious to all his miserable cares and
worries, passing out of reach of them on an ecstatic flight propelled
by the force of the winged drug. He began to consider the possibility
of obtaining chloroform. At once the instinct of secrecy asserted
itself. He decided that he could not, under the circumstances, go
into the drug-store in Banbridge and ask for a quantity of the drug
sufficient for his purposes. He realized that to do so would be to
incur suspicion. He doubted if he could maintain a perfectly unmoved
countenance while asking for it. He felt that his face would bear
evidence to his wild greed. He heard, as he sat there, the whistle,
then the rumble of a heavy freight-train a quarter of a mile distant,
and at once he thought of the feasibility of going to New York for
the chloroform. He looked at his watch and reflected that he had lost
the noon train. He also reflected as to the possible suspicion which
he might awaken of going to join his family, and making his final
exodus from the town and his creditors. He placed his watch in