zz until you
forget everything. You ought to remember; you do things you ought not to
do. It is terrible to be crazy and half conscious of it all the
time--conscious that no one believes what you say or holds you
responsible for what you do.'

'Don't they?' Jerry asked, eagerly, for she knew the meaning of the word
'responsible.' 'If a crazy man or woman took the diamonds, and then
forgot, and did not tell, and it was ever found out, wouldn't they be
punished?'

'Certainly not,' was the reassuring reply, 'Don't you know how many
murders are committed and the murderer is not hung, because they say he
is crazy?'

In a moment the cloud lifted from Jerry's face, which grew so bright
that Arthur noticed the change, and said to her:

'You are better now, I see, and I must go before I undo it all.
Good-bye, and never say diamonds to me again; it gets me all in a--m
a--well, a French pickle--mixed, you know.'

He kissed her tenderly, and promising to take her for a drive as soon as
she was able, went out and left her alone, wondering why it was that his
having given the diamonds to his sister-in-law had failed in its effect
upon her, and upon himself, too.

For a long time after he was gone Jerry lay thinking with her eyes
closed, so that if Harold or her grandmother came in they would think
her asleep. Mr. Arthur was certainly crazy at times--very crazy. She
could swear to that, and so could many others. And if a crazy man was
not responsible for his acts, then he was not, and the law would not
touch him; but with regard to the accessory, she was not sure. If that
individual were not crazy, why, then he or she might be punished; and as
the taste she had had of bread and water, and hard boards, in the shape
of the floor, was not very satisfactory, and as Mrs. Tracy had other
diamonds in the place of the lost ones, she finally determined to keep
her own counsel and never tell what she had heard Arthur say that
morning when the theft was discovered and he had talked so fast in
German to her and to himself. If she had known where the diamonds were
she might have managed to return them to their owner. But she did not
know, and her better course was to keep quiet, hoping that in time Mr.
Arthur himself would remember and make restitution; for that he had
forgotten and was sincere in saying that he knew nothing of them she was
certain, and her faith in him, which for a little time had been shaken,
was restored.

With this l