"A MOST INTERESTING CASE!"
Nine o'clock of the next evening came and passed. Dr. Annister
dismissed his last patient, looked into his waiting room and found it
empty, then sat down to wait for a few minutes, unwilling to take from
Felix Brand what he feared might be his last chance.
"If I can give him some help tonight," the physician's thoughts ran,
"if I can restore his self-confidence and his grip on himself, that
will be just the impulse in the right direction that he needs. After
that it will be easier for him and he may win yet. A most interesting
case! More interesting even than Dr. Prince's Miss Beauchamp! The
cleavage is complete and clean. If I can cure it, it will be the most
remarkable case on record!"
There was a tap at the open door behind him and he heard Brand's voice
saying, "Are you here, Dr. Annister?"
"Come in, Felix, come in," the doctor replied, rising, with more of
professional interest than personal friendliness in his tones. "You've
come for your first treatment, I suppose? Well, we'll see what we can
do."
Brand was moving about the room with seemingly aimless steps, a
curious unwillingness upon his face. Within himself he was feeling a
sense of compulsion that was moving him against his will. Within his
brain he seemed not so much to hear as to feel a voice saying, "Tell
him! Tell him!" And with all his strength he was battling against
these inward commands.
Dr. Annister noticed his stubborn look and the defiant poise of his
head. "What is it, Felix?" queried the physician. "Don't you want to
take the treatment? Have you changed your mind?"
"No, sir. I've not changed my mind. I'm more anxious than ever about
it. Shall we begin at once?"
Suddenly his ears seemed to roar with the sound of "Tell him! Tell
him! Tell him!" He started and glanced fearfully about the room.
"I will not! I will not! I will not!" His tongue formed the words of
refusal behind closed lips, pressed together in a hard line.
Dr. Annister drew a quick, deep breath. "I'm not in very good shape
tonight, Felix, but I'll do the best I can for you," he said, as he
stepped to a cabinet at the back of the room, where he measured out
and swallowed a dose of medicine. "Now, if you're ready, we'll begin,"
he went on, and was surprised to see his companion stagger back a step
or two and pass his hand irresolutely over his face.
"Yes, Dr. Annister, at once. But there is something--" the words came
slowly, in a monotonous, strained tone through his barely opened lips.
Sudden recollection flashed upon the doctor's mind of something Gordon
had said the night before. He had forgotten it, in his interest in the
peculiar features of the case, until that moment. "Oh," he exclaimed,
"is there something you want to speak of first? What is it?"
Brand's face was pale, his eyes staring and his hands clenched in the
struggle he was still making against that inward mastery bent on
forcing him to a confession he was determined he would not make. For
he greatly feared its effect upon Dr. Annister's intention to help
him, while its other probable consequences he was most unwilling to
accept.
But that other will within himself was stronger than his own
determination. Already he felt his defiance growing numb before it. He
walked irresolutely across the room and back while Dr. Annister looked
at him with surprise and dawning suspicion.
"Well, what is it?" the physician repeated.
Felix stopped short and gave himself an angry shake. Then with a
little snarl he faced about and began, with eyes averted:
"I don't suppose it will please you to hear it," he blurted out, and
the other could not know that the sharpness in his tones was merely
the expression of his futile rage against that hated other will,
housed within his own body, that was forcing him to do a thing sure to
interfere with his plans and pleasures. "But I'm going to tell you
and you can make the best of it."
In his impotent anger he was ready now to say any ruthless thing that
occurred to him. And not for any price would he have had Dr. Annister
discover that he was not making this confession of his own accord.
"You said yesterday that the engagement between Mildred and me must be
ended. Well, it is ended, but not in the way you meant. We are
married."
"What! What do you say?" the doctor exclaimed, wheeling toward him
with frowning brow.
"I said, we're married already. We've been married two months. I took
her over to Jersey one day and we were married there."
"You dared--Felix Brand, you dared do this, knowing what you knew?"
"It seems so," the other coolly replied. "Mildred was quite willing,"
he went on with a little sneer. "I needed her love. I'd have been a
fool not to take what she was ready to give me. And I married her.
Maybe I was a fool to do that, but I did."
"A fool? You were a knave, a wretch, to take advantage of an innocent
girl's love!" cried her father, moving toward him with threatening
manner and blazing eyes. Then, suddenly, the physician staggered back
and sank into his arm-chair.
"Leave me, Felix," he said, and though his tones were suddenly grown
feeble, they still vibrated with angry contempt. "Go, now, at once. I
don't want you near me. But I'll see you again about this matter. And
if you try to communicate with Mildred I'll have you arrested! Go!
Go!"
The architect turned on his heel and left the room. Dr. Annister sank
wearily into his chair and his hands sought their accustomed position.
Then they too fell back against his chest. "Mildred!" his white lips
whispered, then stiffened and were still.
[Illustration: "MILDRED!" HIS WHITE LIPS WHISPERED, THEN STIFFENED AND
WERE STILL]