stly remains snatched from the flames out of the punt, and
to convey three members of that family to the coroner's jury, Mr. Bangs
explained to Doctor Halbert his and the lawyer's thought regarding
Matilda Nagle. The doctor consented, and the detective went to find the
patient, who was busy and cheerful in the sewing room with Mrs.
Carruthers. He told her that she was not looking well, and had better
come with him to see the doctor; but, with all the cunning of insanity,
she refused to go. He had to go after Coristine in the garden, and take
him away from Marjorie. With the lawyer she went at once, identifying
him, as she did not the detective, with her brother Stevy. Mechanically,
she sat down by the kind doctor's chair, and seemed to recognize him,
although he did not remember her. After a few enquiries as to her
health, he took one of her hands in his, and, with the other, made
passes over her face, until she fell into the mesmeric sleep. "Your
husband, Mr. Rawdon, is dead," he said; "you remember that he died by
his own hand, and left you free." The woman gave a start, and seemed to
listen more intently. "You will kill nobody, hurt nobody, not even a
fly," he continued. "Do you remember?" Another start of comprehension
was made, but nothing more; so he went on: "You will read your Bible
and go to church on Sundays, and take care of your boy, and be just the
same to everybody as you were in the old days." Then, with a few counter
passes, he released her hand, and the poor woman told him all that he
had enjoined upon her, as if they were the resolutions of her own will.
She was not sane, but she was free from the vile slavery in which her
inhuman keeper had held her. Moreover, she understood perfectly that
Rawdon was dead, yet without manifesting either joy or grief in the
knowledge. The lawyer led her back to the workroom, where she confided
her new state of mind to Mrs. Carruthers, greatly to that tender-hearted
lady's delight. The doctor did not think it necessary to practise his
art upon the lad Monty, in whom the power of Rawdon's will was already
broken, and upon whom his changed mother would, doubtless, exert a
salutary influence.

Coristine had nothing to do, and almost dreaded meeting Miss Carmichael,
which he probably would do if he remained about the house and grounds.
Therefore he got out the improvised vasculum, and invited Marjorie and
the older Carruthers children to come with him down to the brook to lo