o long latent in a superior intellectual equipment, obscured by a
disenchanting personal appearance, especially unconvincing then, for I
never looked particularly well in bed.

A nurse I had not seen before brought my luncheon, and with it the
letter, which I quickly recognized belonged to my thousand-dollar
collection.

"Your nurse sends this letter, which I am told is yours," said my new
guardian. "She is ill and the doctor has ordered her to rest."

"Ill? Why, I am very, very sorry to hear that," said I. "Tell me,
please, how seriously ill she is. Only a moment ago she left here
looking very pale. Do tell me about her."

"Why, that is all I know."

The next day I learned that Hygeia had gone to her home in Connecticut
for a brief vacation. Something had happened; I did not know what. The
doctor, it appears, advised that a vacation would be the thing. I could
learn no more. I was able to get her address, and wrote a long letter to
her, but no reply came. I began to doubt the strength of my magnetic
power over her, so encouragingly demonstrated, and was utterly miserable
again. Every other worldly interest became dim; the last ray of hope had
gone and through the dark valley of despair I stumbled alone.

Marshall, I learned, had left the same day Hygeia departed, but I did
not care. I should not have spoken to him. I was in no humor to talk
with him over that tame experience passed through while I was
unconscious. When burning over a slow fire, a man is not fit for
reminiscence. Two weeks later, after an illness of ten weeks, I was
discharged from the hospital with all wounds healed except the one I
received there, and perhaps that other--the maddening effect of Hosley's
infidelity.

CHAPTER XVI

It was an unfortunate day for Mr. Tescheron and his family when I
isolated him among the scheming natives of Hoboken, that seat of
wonderful mechanical learning. When the birds had been shipped to
Stukeville, Mrs. Tescheron insisted that the family return home at once,
and, if necessary, take the consequences of a terrible publicity. Life
without her friends had become unbearable. She must have the comforts of
her home. Daily she begged, implored, teased and pined. Gabrielle, too,
urged her father to consider her mother's health, for Hoboken had gotten
upon Mrs. Tescheron's nerves to a dangerous degree.

"I care nothing now for the publicity," said Mrs. Tescheron. "It cannot
be worse than this sort of privac