Ethel Watts Mumford

“ Oh, Nickey, what's going to become of me!”
Nicaise crossed to the bed; very gently but very firmly she took the hot, dry hand that twisted the counterpane.
“You are going to a sanitarium in the hills, Doris, and I'm going with you. I sha'n't leave you, not until you are yourself again. You are to ask no more questions—just rest. We leave to-night. I'll attend to everything. Go to sleep now, dear. There is nothing to worry about.”
Kenneth Paulson's death remains to-day a mystery to all the world—save to one woman. ”

“ McMoNIGAL'S heavy laugh broke in upon his concentration.
“Hey, Ken, can't you stop gazing at your Frau? Lord, you're a constant lover! There's the waiter, and this round is on me.”
Paulson, having readjusted his point of view to suit the new twist of fate, turned back both physically and mentally to the table and became affable. With a word caught on the fly he deftly broke up the talk between the two women, and conversation became general. By a simple maneuver he placed Doris between the men and settled himself beside Nickey Morley. ”

“ You may have worse yet on your soul. You don't know all you've done. The Langfords, all of them, have homicidal mania when delirium gets them, and Doris' father murdered her mother—yes, stabbed her to death. Now—you understand. I've got to find her; you have got to find her if you don't want blood on your hands!”
The car had swung to the curb. The uniformed chasseur had his hand on the knob. She thrust past Paulson, motioned the servant to secure her hand-baggage and passed quickly into the hotel. ”

“ Oh, yes—I know. Everywhere I go, I hear she's been after me, asking for me. Well, she'll never think to come here.” She laughed her strange twittering giggle. “I got her fooled. Gee! I'm tired.” Her eye fell on the whisky-decanter and siphon on the table, and lighted with a look of infantile greediness. “Mind if I take a little drink?”
It was pitiful and ghastly. Even Paulson's dead conscience turned in its grave as Doris, the once delicate and dainty, snatched up the decanter and ravenously upturned it to her lips. ”

“ He must have Nicaise followed. A competent detective must be put on her trail. If it led him to Doris, no matter. He thought of the company whose services he had employed in securing the divorce, and decided it the part of wisdom to go elsewhere. Then, he decided, he would close the house and sell it, furnished, if possible. Nicaise must learn to know him as distinct from Doris' environment. ”

“ In point of fact, Nicaise Morley was unaware of the subterfuge, and had she realized it, would have packed her bag at once and departed in scorn. But this was beyond Paulson's guessing. His power over women had never once met the buckler of indifference. ”

“ Paulson, apparently at his wits' end, consulted everyone; and everybody was very sorry for Paulson. He employed a companion for Doris; but Doris, her passion thwarted, abused the woman so roundly that she left. A trained nurse fared no better after an attack almost of delirium had been mastered. A week at a sanitarium, and Doris escaped—and was gone ten days, to be found at last semiconscious in a cheap hotel-room that reeked of alcohol.
KEN forgave her and took her home. Everybody admired “poor old Ken.” Gradually a change came over the character of Doris' excesses. ”

“ I suppose her aunt was ashamed to tell you, and she relied on the temperance bringing up she'd given her. But to-night—to-night, she would have drunk that champagne if I hadn't stopped her. She's seen everybody drink things of late, and she's lost her aversion, and her idea that it's a sin and that decent women never touch liquor. I—I thought, of course, that you knew the danger and were looking out for her. You saw how careful I was never to let her see me even sip a thing stronger than her own lemonade. ... ”

“ Nicaise's face turned suddenly white; even her crimson lips paled.
“No,” she gasped. “Doris, don't take that!”
Doris set down the glass, her innocent eyes open wide. “Why?” she asked. “She said it would wake me up.”
“Wake you up!” Nickey's voice trembled. “Come, you don't want to wake up; you want to go to bed. And so do I; I'm all in. Ken, get our wraps, please.”
Paulson looked at her, hesitated—and obeyed. Doris put down the glass untouched, yawned like an unmannerly kitten and rose from the table. Mrs. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1940, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 83 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”