er.
She realised that he was in earnest now, and fled the room in horror.

Then he tried to anger her with abuse and calumny to such an extent that
she would be driven to the deed by sheer rage. Failing in this, he resumed
his wheedling tactics. It would be impossible, he argued, for any one to
know that she had given him the soothing poison. The doctors would always
believe that he had overcome his prejudice against self-destruction and
had taken the tablets, just as they intended and evidently desired him to
do. But he would not take his own life. He would go on suffering for years
before he would send his soul to purgatory by such an act. He believed in
damnation. He had lived an honourable, upright life and he maintained that
his soul was entitled to the salvation his body had earned for it by its
resistance to the evils of the flesh. What, said he, could be more
incompatible with a lifelong observance of God's laws than the commission
of an act for which there could be no forgiveness, what more terrible than
going into the presence of his maker with sin as his guide and advocate?
His last breath of life drawn in sin!

Day after day he whispered his wily arguments, and always she fled in
horror. Her every hour was a nightmare, sleeping or waking. Her strength
was shattered, yet she was compelled to withstand his daily attacks. He
never failed to send for her to sit with him while the nurse took her
exercise. He would have no one else. Ultimately he sought to tempt her
with offers of gold! He agreed to add a codicil to his will, giving her an
additional million dollars if she would perform a "simple service" for
him. That was the way he styled it: a simple service! Merely the dropping
of four little tablets into a tumbler of water and holding it to his lips
to drain! Suicide with a distinction, murder by obligation! One of his
arguments was that she would be free to marry the man she loved if he was
out of the way. He did not utter the name of the man, however.

Anne spoke to no one of these shocking encounters in the darkened sick-
room. She would not have spoken to Braden but for her husband's command
given no later than the hour before that she should do so.

"Twice, Braden, I was tempted to do what he asked of me," she said in
conclusion, almost in a whisper. "He was in such fearful agony. You will
never know how he has suffered. My heart ached for him. I cannot
understand how a good and gentle God can inflict