"Well, perhaps I won't, if you don't want me to, Chet. I was going to
ask your advice about it. It'll make the doctor furious, but I don't
mind. Poor Doctor Copin! I'm sorry for him, though. He's awfully hard
up."
"Why! Is he so poor?" I smelled a mouse.
"He's all the time complaining to me, at any rate."
"I should think you'd be afraid to keep much money in the house. It's
such a lonely place for burglars, you know."
"Oh, I don't keep much on hand. But I always have a little. I have a
small income. It comes down every month. It's rents or stocks or
something. It's safely invested and I don't bother about it."
It struck me that she took all this rather easily, but I soon found that
it was the way she took everything. It had always been that way with
her, and she saw nothing strange in it. Her amnesia accounted for
everything. I saw how easily she might be led. Impressionable, and
with a hasty, wilful temper, one who knew her temperament could soon
learn to control her. I began to see how Leah's influence, which had
heretofore been potent, might, perhaps, be undermined by the doctor.
Here was the next thing to be investigated. But I would have to wait
till I had had a talk with him.
She plucked a dandelion and put it into my buttonhole, looking up at me
coquettishly as she did so.
"Chet, d'you know, I like you!" she remarked.
"Oh, I'm not a bit offended at that," said I.
"I wish I could make you like me a little."
"You _are_ looking for a sinecure, aren't you!"
She returned to her ants and poked at them meditatively.
"I don't know why I tell you such things," she went on. "I've never
done so before. But you understand--don't you!"
Oh, yes. I understood. I had heard that sort of thing often enough
before.
"I like you because you treat me just as you'd treat a man. You're not
always remembering that I'm a woman. The doctor--" She broke off. I
understood this, too, but it amazed me to find that she, so far away
from the world, could have so easily found the woman's way.
"You've got a perfectly stunning profile," was her next play.
I showed her how, by pressing in the tip of my nose, it could be made
decidedly Hebraic in contour. She pulled my hand away with a pretty
protest at the outrage to my looks.
Next, she complained that her hair was "horrid," and that after it was
shampooed she could never do anything with it; she calmly took it down
and combed it, a fine silken cascade of brown. It was quite beautiful
enough to warrant the exhibition, which she ended by plaiting it into
two magnificent braids falling below her waist. Finally, she got up and
gave me her coat to hold for her while she put it on, a process which
she delayed unnecessarily, snuggling slowly into the sleeves and looking
coyly up at me over her shoulder. Then she seized my hand, and, before
I knew it, had started to run me down the hill. She stumbled and
fell--on purpose, I'm confident--and I picked her up. How such contacts
and familiarities affected me, considering my growing fondness for Miss
Fielding, I leave you to imagine.
We walked down the path as gleefully as children playing truant, and,
arrived at the stable, she proposed that we go in to examine my machine,
which she was anxious to try. The dogs had been shut up in the
harness-room, and as soon as we approached, they set up a discordant
barking. Edna scowled and went to the door to look in.
"Stop that noise!" she commanded irritably. A new chorus assailed her.
She had opened the door only a crack, but, as she spoke, Nokomis
wriggled through, forcing it open, and, crouching in front of her, ears
laid back, growled angrily. Quick as a flash Edna took up a short whip
that stood in the corner and lashed at the bitch. Nokomis was upon her
in an instant, and, before I could prevent, had seized her ankle and
nipped it severely. Edna screamed and struck again, this time with the
butt of the whip, hitting Nokomis squarely on the forehead.
Yelping, Nokomis released her hold and with her tail between her legs
dashed out of the stable door and disappeared.
Meanwhile, I had closed the door of the harness-room and had run to
Edna. Her face was white, with sudden rage rather than pain. Nokomis
had given her only a nip--the skin was not cut.
"I'll have them all shot to-morrow, if I have to do it myself!" she
cried.
I did my best to calm her, and in a few moments she had recovered her
temper enough to laugh at the episode, though her spite against Nokomis
remained. She forgot it in my explanation of the motor, which she
examined with great intelligence.
Luncheon was ready when we reached the house and we went into the
dining-room. Here it was dim and cool and we fell naturally into a more
placid humor. Edna seemed less the impetuous, irresponsible child she
had been that forenoon, and I got my first hint of what was
characteristic of her in this condition--that, as the day wore on, she
seemed to grow steadily older and more developed mentally.
Over her shoulder the tapestry paper showed a picture of the combat
between James Fitz-James and Roderick Dhu; behind her the door opened
and shut from time to time admitting King with his dainty dishes. He
came and went like a ghost, all in white, while Leah, in a dark gown
to-day, hovered like a shadow in the kitchen.
Edna had an amusing and not unpleasant sort of _gaminerie_ at table.
She was fond of selecting the daintiest, littlest piece of celery from
the dish and tossing it over to my plate. She did not hesitate to use
her fingers in cunning, unconventional ways, not as if she knew no
better, but as if she knew herself to be pretty enough, and charming
enough, to invest the solecism with a personal indulgent humor. So she
dipped her bread in the gravy audaciously, so she crushed her
strawberries with her fork to a red welter of pulp, and added cream with
a flourish. She carried it off perfectly; it was quite a distracting
sight.
At two o'clock we got out my machine and set out for the station to meet
Doctor Copin, she guiding the car according to my instructions. She was
an apt pupil, and though the first stretch of rough lane required
considerable skill in handling the motor, we got out to the highroad
without accident, and put on top speed. The excitement of it kindled
her spirits and a dangerous light shone in her eyes. She was bareheaded
and the wind brought a fine glow to her cheeks.
"Isn't it great!" she exclaimed. "I'm going to get a car the first
thing I do."
Her touch was clever and firm on the wheel, and she passed from one
speed to another and handled the spark like an expert, already. There
was no time for much coquetry, now, but I got a glance now and then on
the straight level runs. She swung up to the station with style, and my
hand, though ready to help her, was not needed. I congratulated her
upon her skill and she was pleased as a child.
"Oh, I'm going to show the doctor!" she cried. "You wait till he gets
in and I'll give him a run for his money!"
The train appeared in a few minutes, and Doctor Copin, with his
professional bag, got out from the parlor-car. He seemed to be much
surprised at seeing me. I thought that I detected something like
annoyance, too, in his expression. I wondered if she had not informed
him of my being at Midmeadows when she had telephoned in the morning.
He greeted me cordially enough, however, inquired as to my condition,
made a dull joke about my ribs, and got into the back seat of the car.
I kept my place in front beside Edna, coaching her as we went along.
I talked commonplaces to the doctor, who replied laconically, and Edna,
being absorbed with her work, kept quiet, her lips closed tightly, her
eyes on the road ahead, waiting for her chance to make speed. After we
had got a little outside the village there was a sharp up-grade, and I
saw her hand fly to the speed lever.
"Be careful how you throw in that clutch," I warned her. "Give it to
her easy, now!"
Her thought was all for impressing the doctor with her ability as a
_chauffeuse_, however, and she was too impatient. She released the
clutch and threw her lever back to second speed. By the time she
dropped her clutch back in again, however, the car had lost momentum,
stopped and begun to roll down-hill, the engine still going furiously.
The gears meshed, but something had to give under the strain, and with a
snap the chain parted. The freed motor shook the car with its velocity.
I grabbed the throttle from her, stopped the engine, set the brake, and
the car came to a standstill.
"Oh!" she wailed, "I've broken something, haven't I?"
"I'm afraid you have," I answered, laughing. "But I'll see what can be
done."
I crawled underneath the car, taking the attitude that has now become
classic, and saw that it would be a case of fastening in a new link. I
backed out, looked in my tool-box and found that there were no extra
links there.
"I can't mend the thing here," I explained. "You and the doctor will
have to get out and walk and leave me here. You'd better send some one
back with a horse to tow me home."
She almost cried with shame and regret, but there was nothing for it but
to do as I had suggested. I noticed a faint smile on the doctor's thin
face. He was undoubtedly glad of the dilemma, as it would temporarily
rid him of my company.
"It's too bad I can't sew it up for you," he said dryly. "I'm afraid it
will require a capital operation, Castle. You'd better have a
consultation with Uncle Jerdon. But if you need any anesthetic to keep
it out of pain while you're waiting, I'll lend you my bag."
"Oh, my machine is used to it, you know," I replied. "If you'll only
send back the coroner it'll be all right."
"Well, we'll hope for a _change_ soon," he said. I verily believe the
man meant it for a pun, for he closed one eye as he got it off. Edna
giggled.
So they set out and left me. I took a seat, lighted a cigar, and waited
as patiently as I could, not at all pleased at the thought of his having
a free hour or two with her. At last Uncle Jerdon appeared on the
scene, driving a span of horses.
"Hello," he greeted me. "The same old, sweet song, eh? Well, we all
have to come to it, sooner or later. You ought to lead a hoss behind
when you go. I'd as soon trust to an airship."
He harnessed his team to the car, and we proceeded slowly home. It was
a humiliating experience, as it always is, but Uncle Jerdon was plainly
hugely amused at my predicament.
"I guess the doctor wan't sorry ye had to stop here alone," he remarked.
"He's a-makin' the most of his time, naow, I expect. Nothin' like a
little friendly rivalry for a bashful man."
"How long have you been back?" I asked, not caring for his
personalities.
"Oh, I jest happened to meet 'em in the north lane as I come. I guess
they wan't expectin' to see nobody there, by the way it looked. Miss
Fielding ain't so crazy but what she knows what she's abaout sometimes,
I tell ye!" At which he went off into an ebullition of silent laughter.
This was disquieting enough information, for I could guess what he had
seen, though I couldn't afford to encourage him. So I changed the
subject.
"How long have you been down here with Miss Fielding!"
"Goin' on two year," he answered.
"I suppose the neighbors talk about her a good deal?"
"I reckon they do! But they don't get nothin' outen me. I sit an' look
wise an' chew a straw an' let 'em talk. Lord, how they do try to pump
me!"
"Doesn't she ever see any of them?"
"Oh, yes, sometimes, when she's O.K., but she don't encourage 'em
callin' much. They think she's so high and mighty, though, that they
don't bother her to any great extent."
He proceeded now of his own accord.
"She's happy enough alone, I take it. Lord! I don't mind her at all. I
attend to my business and she to hern. It ain't as if I was a woman an'
curious, ye know. But when she abuses dumb critters, then I do get mad.
I jes' see ol' Nokomis in the hazels, as I come past. She had her tail
atween her laigs, an' I'm afraid that means trouble. I usually see to
it that the dogs is got outen the way when she's looney, but I expect
Leah must have forgot to attend to 'em. Funny King didn't, either. But
it will happen on occasion. Some day they's goin' to be trouble. Ol'
Nokomis knows more'n most folks herself. I believe King's crazy, too.
He's got a heathen idol in his cabin he's all the time worshipin'.
Burns punk-sticks an' a little peanut-oil lamp in front of it, night an'
day. But I get my own quiet fun outen it all. I'm satisfied."
We got the car safely home, and I spent the rest of the afternoon, with
Uncle Jerdon's assistance, in mending the chain and doing other
necessary cleaning and repairs. Miss Fielding and Doctor Copin stayed
shut in the library. When I had gone up to my room to clean myself,
Leah, came in, bearing fresh towels.
"Oh, Mr. Castle, can't you go in and join them?" she said. "I hate to
have them alone for so long--you don't know how I dread it!"
"What are you afraid of?" I asked.
"I don't know! I don't know! Only I don't trust him."
"Have you seen anything more?"
"Enough to make me worried." Then she brought out painfully, "Mr.
Castle, do you think we would have any right to--to listen!"
"You mean really to eavesdrop?"
"Yes." There was a look of pain in her eyes. I saw by this confession
how far she had gone with her fears.
"I hardly think so, yet," I answered. "It would be pretty hard for us
to do, wouldn't it?"
"But you remember that Miss Joy said, last night, that she would leave
it all to your judgment. Oughtn't we, to protect her, perhaps, find out
just what it is he's doing?"
I thought it over at length. But it was a resource that I couldn't help
wanting to leave till the last. After all, it wasn't as bad as that,
yet. Except in Edna's familiarities with me, and Leah's vague fears, I
had no reason for fearing anything wrong. All depended upon the
doctor's motives in being alone with her. He might, indeed, be making
love to her, but then, perhaps he was truly in love; he might even want
to marry her. It was a maddening thought for me, but, after all, it
was, strictly, none of my business. He had a right to try to woo her,
and it couldn't, at any rate, go far without Joy herself becoming aware
of it. She would be the first to acknowledge that Edna had a right to
permit it. If, however, he were dishonest in his motive, if he were,
for instance, after her money, that was quite another matter, and it was
obviously my place to interfere. We should have, at least, to see that
Edna could not get hold of any property.
Lastly, and this seemed, at that time, most probable, he might only be
carrying on a series of experiments with an interesting patient for some
technical end. True, Joy had herself refused to permit him to treat
her, and this probably accounted for his devoting himself to Edna; but
it was not, so far as I could see, dangerous. My position, therefore,
was a delicate one, and I made up my mind to have another talk with Joy
before showing my hand in interference.
I went over all this with Leah and she listened attentively. She
iterated that she didn't trust Doctor Copin, and that she feared there
was danger at hand. I could see that the hint that he might want to
marry Edna frightened her most of all.
"How can I tell Miss Joy?" she said. "How can I hint that Edna is too
free with him--and all the rest that I suspect? Why, Mr. Castle, if she
knew that, it would kill her! But _oughtn't_ I tell her? Is it fair for
her not to know? It's the most awful situation! I can't bear to think
of it! We must save her from herself, though, as well as from the
knowledge of herself--do you see?"
She was sensitively alive to the intricate phases of honor that were
entangled in the situation, and, showing such fineness and delicacy, I
could quite ignore the fact that she was a negress. But that was merely
the negative aspect of my admiration for her. From this time on, the
more I was thrown with her in the intimate way required by our
cooeperation, the more I began actually to find in her a positive
beauty, a beauty that was truly of her race and type--a beauty that
foreshadowed what, were environment to permit its development, her race
might in time attain, when, even though the skin were still dark, the
features, insensibly modified by mental processes, would lose something
of the extravagance of modeling now so repellent to whites.
Such vision came in moments like this, when her spirit was aroused and
free. Usually, and always when suffering patiently the contempt or
anger of Edna, I saw her only as the personification of loyalty, the
loyalty of the hound who licks the hand that smites him. It was then as
if her woman's soul were crushed back farther into the figure of the
servant. But always those two qualities were finely blended in her--she
was slave and friend, not alternately but at once. One dwelt with the
other in perfect peace. No hunchback ever carried his deformity with a
nobler grace than she the trial of her color.
Miss Fielding and the doctor remained closeted together till
dinner-time, when we three met at table. She was slightly flushed and
her eyes were keen and bright. It was as if she somehow saw more--as if
she had passed from that curious, mentally apathetic state which I have
called childlike, and were inspecting a new world. But this analysis,
no doubt, comes from what I learned later rather than from my
observation at that time. Perhaps all that impressed me then was that
she had, in some way, changed. I could find no way in which to account
for the precise degree of difference that I noticed. She was alternately
gay and abstracted, at which latter times she fell unconsciously into
poses so like those of her normal self--Joy's self--that it gave me,
often, a start of surprise.
But, as if to cover all this, the doctor was more than usually jocose in
a mechanical way so devoid of real humor that it irritated me. Try as I
might, I could not get him to talk seriously. At every remark or
question of mine, he threw me off with some nonsensical comment. It was
the more maddening because of Edna's inevitable laughter, and it was
evident that she thought him a most amusing companion, though to me he
seemed wholly without atmosphere or radiation; everything appeared
calculated, deliberate. I saw that there could be nothing between us,
unless, indeed, it should come to open conflict. He was the sort of man
who could, I was well aware, arouse all my antagonism. It was easy
enough to see that I was already jealous.
We talked on thus through the meal and then adjourned to the library for
our coffee. As we entered I cast a quick look about to see if I could
catch any revealing sign. I saw nothing except that the morris chair
was drawn up to another, so that the two faced each other, almost near
enough to touch. There were a few sheets of ruled yellow paper on the
table. These the doctor took up as he went in, and placed in his
pocket.
The talk languishing after a while, we spent the evening at cards, and
what with the doctor's sallies and Edna's obvious replies, I think I was
never more bored in my life. The only amusing thing about it was the way
she played us off, one against the other, twitting the doctor with his
remissness when he was not so complimentary as I was to her, and
accusing me of a lack of humor when I did not join in their badinage.
She distributed her favors impartially, upon the whole, though I caught
several indications of some secret understanding between them, which was
not surprising, considering the length of their acquaintance. He seemed
to enjoy the evening as little as I, and to be a trifle embarrassed,
even somewhat anxious. This was evident in the way he watched her
covertly, and in the way he headed off all my questions, as if always on
the defense. From a look she gave him, once or twice, I got the idea,
also, that his foot was busy, under the table, and that he was using
that method of signaling when the conversation got dangerously near
whatever it was that he wished to avoid. This interested me
considerably for the reason that her other foot was touching mine in a
way that assured me of her conscious intention. The situation was as
unpleasant as it was extraordinary. I lost myself, at times, in the
inconsistency of it--the strangeness of her actions so unattuned to the
exquisite body which was wont to house such delicacies of soul. She had
indubitably changed from those first whimsical madcap moods of the
morning. Somehow her personality had deepened; it had grown in strength
and color; it was more assertive. She was no longer carelessly,
thoughtlessly frank and forward, she had some definite motive.
Her coquetry and raillery lasted, thus, till ten o'clock, when she
excused herself and went up to her room. The doctor and I remained in
the library. I determined to cross swords with him.
"I'd like to know what you make of Miss Fielding's case," I began.
"Anything, that is, that you can tell me with propriety. I confess I'm
much interested in it."
[Illustration: "I'd like to know what you make of Miss Fielding's
case."]
He got up, long and thin, put his hands behind him under his coat-tails,
and stood backing the fireplace.
"Oh, I know what _you're_ interested in!" he said with his grin.
"Do you think there's any chance of her recovering?" I said, ignoring
his sarcasm.
"What's she lost?" he asked.
"Why, herself, hasn't she? To-day, at least."
"Oh, she'll find that to-morrow, I expect!" He balanced himself on his
toes and smoked complacently.
I might as well stop there, I knew, but at the risk of being impertinent
I was bound to see what I could get out of him.
"Have you found any law governing these alternations?"
"Why, yes; I have good reason to believe they come in turn--first one
and then the other."
I got up. I fancy he came as near to receiving a blow on the point of
the chin that moment, as he ever did in his life. But I held myself in
check.
"Of course, if you think that it's none of my business, I'll ask you no
more questions," I said angrily.
"Oh, no! Oh, no!" He shook his head with a deprecatory wave. "Only
sometimes it's easier to ask questions than to answer them. This is a
common enough case, as you know, if you know anything about psychology.
A mild form of mania; that's all."
"Do you mean to say that you consider it merely insanity?" I demanded.
"Oh, we're all insane, more or less," he pursued in his maddening,
non-committal way. "Insanity is a relative term, you know. 'All the
world is queer but thee and me, and even thee's a little queer,' as the
old Quaker said."
I did my best to keep my temper. "It's very unfortunate, at all
events."
"Oh, I don't know. We can't have too many of such fine women as Miss
Fielding, can we? I'm sure I'd like to know a half-dozen of them!"
"You must confess it's hard on her."
"Oh, it gives her something interesting to think about. All alone here,
you know." He waved his long arm comprehensively over the scene.
"But aren't you trying to do anything for her? She surely wants to get
over it." I was determined to push him into some definite statement.
But it was no use.
"Oh, she'll come out all right," he replied, yawning behind his palm.
"She's too fine a woman, as you say; she has too fine a character, too
fine a mind--" I began in protest.
"My dear Mr. Castle, women are always changing their minds." His
shoulders shook as he laughed silently at his own joke.
"You'll change yours, before I've finished with you," I said to myself.
But there was no use continuing the dialogue, and, bidding him good
night, I went up to bed. Leah had given her own room up to him and she
spent the night in Miss Fielding's study. I heard him come stumbling up
at midnight.
*IV*
It was with a feeling of great relief that, next morning, I heard the
dogs barking jubilantly in the yard, answering, each in turn, to their
names. Nokomis, I knew by her heavy note, had returned to the house.
Joy was, then, herself.
This was better than I had dared to hope. My suspicions in regard to the
doctor were now strengthened and I felt intuitively that, in some way,
his presence at Midmeadows accounted for the increasing frequency of
Edna's visitations.
The last three days had shown regular alternations of personality, but I
recalled the fact that on both Monday and Tuesday it had been Edna who
had possessed Miss Fielding's body. With this thought came also the
recollection of Joy's unusual actions in telephoning to the doctor.
The two facts seemed to indicate a significant relation--a relation,
perhaps, of cause and effect. A third hint came--that such anomalous
states of personality were sometimes developed during hypnosis--and the
three separate thoughts snapped together, crystallizing into an idea.
Had not Doctor Copin hypnotized Edna, and given her the post-hypnotic
suggestion that she, in Joy's person, should telephone to him in the
morning? It seemed probable, for I could not doubt, now, that it was to
the doctor's interest to keep Miss Fielding as long and as often as
possible in her secondary state, as Edna. As Edna she was impressible
and easily managed to his ends. Edna invited him and welcomed him to
Midmeadows, while Joy was cold and reserved. Everything that had
happened dovetailed into my hypothesis--his annoyance at my presence, as
the especial friend of Joy, and his own particular cultivation of
Edna--the proof, in fact, seemed conclusive. What, then, was he trying
to do?
I went down early and found him, lean and lank in his suit of muddy
brown, wandering about outside, his long hands clasped behind his back.
He greeted me civilly enough, but without warmth. I did not disturb him
in his mood, and he meandered up and down, turning over a stone with his
foot now and then, stooping to pluck a flower and sniff it thoughtfully,
humming a tune to himself as he strolled.
Leah came to the doorway, gave me a happy look, nodded meaningly, and
passed up stairs with Miss Fielding's tray. I went back to the stable
to see the collies. Nokomis bounded up to me and nuzzled my hand. Her
forehead showed a scar where the whip handle had struck her, and I
talked to her about it condolently, in canine gutturals. We seemed to
understand each other perfectly.
At half-past eight Leah called me in to breakfast. I found Doctor Copin
already at table.
"Going up to town to-day, Castle?" he asked, tucking his serviette into
his collar.
"No, I hadn't thought of it," I said, sitting down.
"H'm!" he ejaculated thoughtfully. "I didn't know but we might be
taking the same train."
"Oh, I think I'll try my machine when I leave," I said.