The Return

ish them with ease and applause. Now he was standing face to face with the unknown. He burst out laughing, into a long, low, helpless laughter. Then he arose and began to walk softly, swif

dley of answers. But above all the confusion and turmoil of his brain, as a boatswain's whistle rises above a storm, so sounded

inite, as it were, came another sharp tap at the d

t eight, Arthur; I ca

e closed door. 'Very well, Sheila, you shall not wait any longer.' He cross

the ring he carried-beneath the door. 'In the third little drawer from the top, on the left side, is a letter; please don't say anything now. It is the letter you wrote me, you will remember, after I had

his mean, this mystery, this hopeless nonsense about a silly letter? What has happen

deadliest earnest, Sheila. You must get the letter, if only for your own peace of min

etter,' came the low

ou open

'Are the letters there underl

ters are

3rd." No one else in the whole world, living or

please ope

on

ose not

oman, with sleek hair, in a silk dress of a dark rich colour entered. Lawford

so I am, but the fact is-I went out for a walk; it was rather stupid, perhaps, so soon: and I think I was taken ill, or something-my heart. A kind of fit, a nervous fit. Possibly I am a little unstrung, and it's all, it's main

uch a fuss, to scare!...' b

candlesticks, and held them, one in each lan

ow her whole face visibly darkened, from pallor to a dusky leaden grey, as she gazed. It was not an illusion then; not a miserab

eally; what is it really, Shei

adily seated herself, a little out of the candlelight, in the shadow. Lawford rose and put the key o

d "a fit

rstand my being... O Sheila, what am I to do?' His wife sa

nderstand-"a nerv

ed her again. 'In the old churchyard, Widde

rd, Widderstone-you were "l

t went a little queer, and I sat down and fell into a kind of doze-a stup

o you

I know

ke t

ards the looking-gla

e me-I mean the first shock, you know-it has made me a little faint.' She walked slowly, deliberately to the door, and unlocked it. 'I'll get a little sal volatile.' She softly

disbelieve me, Sheila. Who else is there to help me? You have the letter in your hand. Isn't that sufficient proof? It was overwhelming proof to me. And even I doubted too; doubted myself. But never mind; why I should have dreamed you would believe me; or taken this awful thing differently, I don't know. It's rather awful to have to go on alone. But there, think it over. I shall not stir until I hear the voices. And then: h

lash of a heliograph, as it were, height to height, flashing 'Courage!' He shuddered, and shut his eyes. 'But I

a heart attack, or, as you said at first, a fit, that you fell into a stupor, and came home like-like this. Am I likely to believe all that? Am I likely to believe such a story as that? Whoever you are, whoever you may be, is it likel

g me; she is feeling her way,' he kept repeating to himself.

either senseless or heedless. I am merely going to ask your brother Cecil to come in, if he is at home, and if not, no doubt our

u think poor old Cecil, who next January will have been three years in his grave, will be of any use in our difficul

ome a little more composed he stood up. 'You have had no dinner,' he managed to blurt out at last, 'you will be faint. It's useless to talk, even to think, any more to-night. Leave me to myself for a while. Don't look at me any mo

realize what you say. You seem to have lost all-all consciousness. I quite agree, it is useless for me to burden you with my company while you are in your present condition of mind. But you will at least promise me that you won't take any furt

am not yet in the padded room. And please understand, I take no further steps in "this awful business" until I hear a strange voice in the house.' Sheila paused, but the quiet voice rang in her ear, desperately yet convi

id hastily. 'I could only find the one volume. I have sa

e, with eyes stonily averted, his wife left him to

of memory, dual personality. Cranks... Oh yes, he thought now, with a sense of cold humiliating relief, there had been such cases as his before. They were no doubt curable. They must be comparatively common in America-that land of jangled nerves. Possibly bromide, rest, a battery. But Quain, it seemed, shared his prejudices, at least in this edition, or had h

's me,' came

y wanted to speak to your

gone out, sir,'

ne

not to mention it; but

mind; I didn't ring.' He stoo

came the faint, nervous qu

ook, sat down, and scribbled a little note. He hardly noticed how chan

an answer. Then come back direct to me, up here. I don't think, Ada, your mistress believes much in Critchett; but I have fully explained what I want. He has made me up many p

was confronted with the cold incredible horror of his ordeal. Who would believe, who could believe, that behind this strange and awful, yet how simple

ndeed to change in soul, into That. 'It's that beastly voice again,' Lawford cried out loud, looking vacantly at his upstretched finger. And then, hand and arm, not too willingly, as it were, obeyed; relaxed and fell to his side. '

bedpost to bedpost; now counting aloud his footsteps; now humming; only, only to keep himself from thinking. At last he took out a drawer and actually began arranging its medley of contents; ties, letters, studs, concert and theatre programmes-all higgledy-piggledy. And in the midst of this childish strategem he heard a faint sound, as of heavy wa

ly. Mrs Lawford is following. Please tell her that I am here, when she returns. Mr Critchett was in, then? Thank you. Extreme, extreme silence, please.' Again that knotted, melodramatic finger raised itself on high; and within that lean, cadaverous body the soul of its lodger quaile

he? where is he? You bound yourself on your solemn promise not to stir till I returned. You... How can I, how can we get decentl

s all. Tell the girl I am a strange doctor-Dr Simon's new partner. You are clever at conventionalities, Sheila. Invent! I said our patient must be kept quiet-I really think he must. That is all, so far as Ada is concerned.... What on earth else ARE we to say?' he broke out. 'Tha

is kind are, I suppose, if anybody's concern, his. It's certain to leak out. Everybody will hear of it. Don't flatter yourself you are going to hush up a thing like this for long. You can't keep living skeletons in a cupboard. You think only of yourself, only of your own misfortune. But who's to know, pray, that you really are my husband-if you are? The sooner I get the vicar on my s

only that she was in a great, unwarrantable, and insurmountable difficulty, but until she actually lifted her eyes for a moment she had not fully r

rate ambush, smiled. Something partaking of its clay, some reflex ghos

in profile in the doorway. 'Will you

ble step, a step I implore you to postpone awhile-for what comes, I suppose,

t room behind them; the corridor was lit obscurely by the chandelier far down in the hall below. A faint, inexplicable dread fe

irs; she first, the dark figu