Pat had no intentions, however, of following the famous highway that
evening. She stamped angrily down the Doctor's steps, swished her way
through the break in the hedge with small regard to the safety of her
sheer hose, and mounted to her own porch. She found her key, opened the
door and entered.
As she ascended the stairs, her fit of temper at the Doctor passed, and
she felt lonely, weary, and unutterably miserable. She sank to a seat
on the topmost step and gave herself over to bitter reflections.
Nick was gone! The realization came poignantly at last; there would be
no more evening rides, no more conversations whose range was limited
only by the scope of the universe, no more breath-taking kisses, the
sweeter for his reluctance. She sat mournfully silent, and considered
the miserable situation in which she found herself.
In love with a madman! Or worse--in love with a demon! With a being
half of whose nature worshiped her while the other half was bent on her
destruction! Was any one, she asked herself--was any one, anywhere,
ever in a more hopeless predicament?
What could she do? Nothing, she realized, save sit helplessly aside
while Nick battled the thing to a finish. Or possibly--the only
alternative--take him as he was, chance the vicissitudes of his
unstable nature, lay herself open to the horrors she had glimpsed so
recently, and pray for her fortunes to point the way of salvation. And
in the mood in which she now found herself, that seemed infinitely the
preferable solution. Yet rationally she knew it was impossible; she
shook her head despondently, and leaned against the wall in abject
misery.
Then, thin and sharp sounded the shrill summons of the door bell, and
a moment later, the patter of the maid's footsteps in the hall below.
She listened idly to distract herself from the chain of despondency
that was her thoughts, and was mildly startled to recognize the booming
drums of Dr. Horker's voice. She heard his greeting and the muffled
reply from the group, and then a phrase understandable because of his
sonorous tones.
"Where's Pat?" The words drifted up the well of the stairs, followed
by a scarcely audible reply from her mother. Heavy footfalls on the
carpeted steps, and then his figure bulked on the landing below her.
She cupped her chin on her hands, and stared down at him while he
ascended to her side, sprawling his great figure beside her.
"Pat, Honey," he rumbled, "you're beginning to get me worried!"
"Am I?" Her voice was weary, dull. "I've had myself like that for a
long time."
"Poor kid! Are you really so miserable over this Nick problem of yours?"
"I love him."
"Yes." He looked at her with sympathy and calculation mingling in his
expression. "I believe you do. I'm sorry, Honey; I didn't realize until
now what he means to you."
"You don't realize now," she murmured, still with the weary intonation.
"Perhaps not, Pat, but I'm learning. If you're in this thing as deeply
at all that, I'm in too--to the finish. Want me?"
She reached out her hand, plucking at his coatsleeve. Abruptly she
leaned toward him, burying her face against the rough tweed of his
suit; she sobbed a little, while he patted her gently with his great,
delicately fingered hand. "I'm sorry, Honey," he rumbled. "I'm sorry."
The girl drew herself erect and leaned back against the wall, shaking
her head to drive the tears from her eyes. She gave the Doctor a wan
little smile.
"Well?" she asked.
"I'll return your compliment of the other night," said Horker briskly.
"I'll ask a few questions--purely professional, of course."
"Fire away, Dr. Carl."
"Good. Now, when our friend has one of these--uh--attacks, is he
rational? Do his utterances seem to follow a logical thought sequence?"
"I--think so."
"In what way does he differ from his normal self?"
"Oh, every way," she said with a tremor. "Nick's kind and gentle and
sensitive and--and naive, and this--other--is cruel, harsh, gross,
crafty, and horrible. You can't imagine a greater difference."
"Um. Is the difference recognizable instantly? Could you ever be in
doubt as to which phase you were encountering?"
"Oh, no! I can--well, sort of dominate Nick, but the other--Lord!" She
shuddered again. "I felt like a terrified child in the presence of some
powerful, evil god."
"Humph! Perhaps the god's name was Priapus. Well, we'll discount your
feelings, Pat, because you weren't exactly in the best condition
for--let's say _sober_ judgment. Now about this story of his. What
happens to his own personality when this other phase is dominant? Did
he say?"
"Yes. He said his own self was compelled to sort of stand by while
the--the intruder used his voice and body. He knew the thoughts of the
other, but only when it was dominant. The rest of the time he couldn't
tell its thoughts."
"And how long has he suffered from these--intrusions?"
"As long as he can remember. As a child he was blamed for the other's
mischief, and when he tried to explain, people thought he was lying to
escape punishment."
"Well," observed the Doctor, "I can see how they might think that."
"Don't you believe it?"
"I don't exactly disbelieve it, Honey. The human mind plays queer
tricks sometimes, and this may be one of its little jokes. It's a
psychiatrist's business to investigate such things, and to painlessly
remove the point of the joke."
"Oh, if you only can, Dr. Carl! If you only can!"
"We'll see." He patted her hand comfortingly.
"Now, you say the kind, gentle, and all that, phase is the normal one.
Is that usually dominant?"
"Yes. Nick can master the other, or could until recently. He says this
last--attack--is the worst he's ever had; the other has been gaining
strength."
"Strange!" mused the Doctor. "Well," he said with a smile of
encouragement, "I'll have a look at him."
"Do you think you can help?" Pat asked anxiously. "Have you any idea
what it is?"
"It isn't a devil, at any rate," he smiled.
"But have you any idea?"
"Naturally I have, but I can't diagnose at second hand. I'll have to
talk to him."
"But what do you think it is?" she persisted.
"I think it's a fixation of an idea gained in childhood, Honey. I had
a patient once--" He smiled at the reminiscence--"who had a fixed
delusion of that sort. He was perfectly rational on every point
save one--he believed that a pig with a pink ribbon was following
him everywhere! Down town, into elevators and offices, home to
bed--everywhere he went this pink-ribboned prize porker pursued him!"
"And did you cure him?"
"Well, he recovered," said the Doctor non-committally. "We got rid of
the pig. And it might be something of that nature that's troubling your
boy friend. Your description doesn't sound like a praecox or a manic
depressive, as I thought originally."
"Oh," said Pat abruptly. "I forgot. He went to a doctor in New York, a
very great doctor."
"Muenster?"
"He didn't say whom. But this doctor studied him a long time, and
finally came out with this fixed idea theory of yours. Only he couldn't
cure him."
"Um." Horker grunted thoughtfully.
"Do fixed ideas do things like that to people?" queried the girl.
"Things like the pig and what happened to Nick?"
"They might."
"Then they're devils!" she announced with an air of finality. "They're
just your scientific jargon for exactly what Magda means when she says
a person's possessed by a devil. So I'm right anyway!"
"That's good orthodox theology, Pat," chuckled the Doctor. "We'll try a
little exorcism on your devil, then." He rose to his feet. "Bring your
boy friend around, will you?"
"Oh, Dr. Carl!" she cried. "He's leaving! I'll have to call him
tonight!"
"Not tonight, Honey. Mueller would let me know if anything of that sort
were happening. Tomorrow's time enough."
The girl stood erect, mounting to the top step to bring her head level
with the Doctor's. She threw her arms about him, burying her face in
his massive shoulder.
"Dr. Carl," she murmured, "I'm a nasty, ill-tempered, vicious little
shrew, and I'm sorry, and I apologize. You know I'm crazy about you,
and," she whispered in his ear, "so's Mother!"
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