As soon as Percy Tate confronted his wife at the table that night he saw
that something was on her mind.
"You've been to see those circus people," he said.
"How did you know that?"
"Oh, clairvoyance,--my subtle insight into the workings of your brain!"
"I suppose Hawkins told you. Well, I _have_ been to see them."
Tate began to pick at the bread beside his plate. He often became
preoccupied when he knew his wife wanted him to ask questions; this was
his favorite way of teasing her.
"It's the strangest _menage_ I ever saw in my life," Mrs. Tate exclaimed
at last, unable to keep back the news any longer. "And it's just as I
thought it would be. That poor little creature simply lives in terror of
being killed."
Tate rolled his eyes. "'In the midst of life we are in death,'" he said
solemnly.
"It's altogether too serious a matter to be made a joke of, Percy. If
you could have heard--"
"Now, my dear, you know what I told you. You went to see that woman with
the deliberate expectation of finding her a person to be sympathized
with, and I can see that you've imagined a lot of nonsense about her.
Why in the world don't you let such people alone? You belong in your
place and she belongs in hers, and the world is big enough to hold you
both without obliging you to come together. You can't understand her
feelings any more than she can understand yours. You wonder how you'd
feel if you were in her place; you can't realize that if you _were_ in
her place you'd be an altogether different person. If you had to go
through her performances, of course you'd be scared to death; but you
forget she's been brought up to do those things; it's her business, her
life. I knew you'd go there and work up a lot of ridiculous sympathy,
and badger that woman for nothing!"
At the beginning of this speech Mrs. Tate had sat back in her chair with
an expression of patient resignation in her face. When her husband
finished she breathed a long sigh. "I hope you've said it all, Percy.
You're so tiresome when you make those long harangues. Besides, you've
only succeeded in showing that you don't understand the case at all."
Then, as they finished their soup, Mrs. Tate gave an account of her call
of the afternoon, ending with a graphic repetition of the talk with
Blanche about the pains in her back.
"I shall certainly tell Dr. Broughton about it," she cried. "That poor
child--she really _is_ nothing _but_ a child--she's just killing herself
by inches, and her husband is worse than a brute to let the thing go
on."
"So you want to stop it and take away their only means of support."
"It isn't their only means of support. It seems the husband has money.
That makes it all the worse."
"Now, let me say right here, my dear, I wash my hands of this affair. If
you want to rush in and upset those people's lives, go ahead, but I'll
have nothing to do with it."
"I wish you wouldn't scold me so, Percy. It seems to me I usually bear
the consequences of what I do. And I don't see what harm there can be in
consulting Dr. Broughton. You're always cracking him up yourself."
Tate burst into a loud laugh. "If that isn't just like a woman! Turning
it onto poor old Broughton."
"Oh, sometimes you're so _aggravating_, Percy!"
Two days later, in spite of her husband's opposition, Mrs. Tate
consulted Dr. Broughton, and he promised, as soon as he could, to call
some morning at the little hotel in Albemarle Street. Before he appeared
there Mrs. Tate ingratiated herself into the affections of the family.
As Blanche grew more familiar with her, she confided to her many details
of her life, and Mrs. Tate speedily possessed the chief facts in
connection with it. These facts did not increase her esteem for Jules,
whose days, in spite of his duties as his wife's manager, were spent in
what she regarded as wholly unpardonable idleness. She also suspected
that Jules disliked her; it must have been he who sent word that they
would be unable to accept her invitation for dinner on Sunday evening.
This, however, did not prevent their being invited for the following
Sunday. Mrs. Tate was determined to secure her husband's opinion of her
new _proteges_.
Before Sunday came Dr. Broughton unexpectedly made his appearance in the
Tates' drawing-room one evening.
"I've seen your acrobat," he said to the figure in yellow silk and lace,
reading beside the lamp. "Don't get up. Been out? I hardly thought I'd
find you in; you're such a pair of worldlings."
"We came away early. I had a headache," said Tate, shading his eyes with
one hand and offering the other to the visitor. "Or, rather, I pretended
I had."
The Doctor, a short, stout man of fifty, with grayish brown hair, and
little red whiskers jutting out from either side of his face, and with
enormous eyebrows shading his keen eyes, gathered his coat-tails in his
hand, and took a seat on the couch.
"It's late for a call--must be after ten. But I knew this lady of yours
would want to hear about her acrobat. Nice little creature, isn't she?
Seems ridiculous she should belong to a circus."
"She doesn't belong there," Mrs. Tate replied, briskly inserting a
paper-knife in her book and laying the book on the little table beside
her. "I've never seen any one so utterly misplaced. Did you have a talk
with her?"
"Yes--a talk. That was all; but that was enough. Her husband was out."
"O, you conspirators!" Tate exclaimed.
"Then you've satisfied yourself about her?" said his wife, ignoring him.
"Yes. She has a very common complaint, a form of meningitis; slumbering
meningitis, it's often called. Many people have it without knowing it;
and she might have had it even if she hadn't taken to thumping her spine
half a dozen times a week. The trouble's located in the spine."
"There, I told you so!" exclaimed Mrs. Tate; and "What a lovely habit
women have of never gloating over anything!" her husband added amiably.
"Percy, I wish you'd keep quiet! Do you really think it's serious,
Doctor?"
The Doctor held up his hands meditatively, the ends of the fingers
touching, and slowly lifted his shoulders. "In itself it may be serious
or it may not. Sometimes trouble of that sort is quiescent for years,
and the patient dies of something else. Sometimes it resists treatment,
and leads to very serious complications,--physical and mental. I've had
cases where it has affected the brain and others where it has led to
paralysis. In this case it is likely to be aggravated."
"By the diving, you mean?" said Mrs. Tate.
"Exactly. That has probably been the cause of the trouble lately--if it
wasn't the first cause. It may go on getting worse, or it may remain as
it is for years, or it may disappear for a time, or possibly,
altogether."
Mrs. Tate breathed what sounded like a sigh of disappointment. "Then it
isn't so bad as I thought," she said.
For a moment the Doctor hesitated. Then he replied: "Yes, it's worse.
The mere physical pain that it causes Madame Le Baron is of
comparatively little account. I think we may be able to stop that. The
peculiarity of the case is the nervousness, the curious fear that seems
to haunt her."
In her excitement Mrs. Tate almost bounced from her seat. "That is
_exactly_ what I said. The poor child hasn't a moment's peace. It's the
most terrible thing I ever heard of. And to think that that man--her
husband----"
"It's always the husband," Tate laughed. "Broughton, why don't you stand
up for your sex?"
"Percy wants to turn the whole thing into ridicule. I think it's a
shame. I can't tell you how it has worried me. I feel so----"
"For Heaven's sake, Broughton, I wish you'd give my wife something to
keep her from feeling for other people. If you don't, she'll go mad, and
I shall too. She wants to regulate the whole universe. I have a horrible
fear that she's going to get round to me soon."
The Doctor smiled, and bent his bushy eyes on the husband and then on
the wife.
"It's a peculiar case," he repeated thoughtfully, when they had sat in
silence for several moments. "It couldn't be treated in the ordinary
way."
"How in the world did you get so much out of her?" Mrs. Tate asked.
"She's the shyest little creature."
"I had to work on her sympathies. I got her to crying,--and then, of
course, the whole story came out. As you said, she's haunted by the fear
of being killed."
"But that's the baby," said Mrs. Tate quickly. "She told me she never
had the least fear till her baby was born."
The Doctor lifted his eyebrows. "It's several things," he replied dryly,
refusing to take any but the professional view.
Then they discussed the case in all its aspects. The haunting fear Dr.
Broughton regarded as the worst feature. "She says when she goes into
the ring, that usually leaves her; but if it came back just before she
took her plunge it would kill her. The least miscalculation would be
likely to make her land on her head in the net, and that would mean a
broken neck. It's terrible work,--that. The law ought to put a stop to
it."
"The law ought to put a stop to a good many things that it doesn't,"
Mrs. Tate snapped. "To think that in this age of civilization----"
"There she goes, reforming the world again!" her husband interrupted.
"But if the law doesn't stop it in this case," she went on, "_I_ will."
For a time they turned from the subject of Blanche and her ills to other
themes; but when, about midnight, Dr. Broughton rose to leave, Mrs. Tate
went back to it. "We're going to have the Le Barons here for dinner next
Sunday," she said. "I wish you'd come in if you can. I want Percy to see
what they're like."
"She relies on my judgment after all," said Tate, following the guest to
the door. As they stood together in the hall, "You think the case is
serious then?" he asked quietly.
The Doctor whispered something in his ear, and Tate nodded thoughtfully.
"And how do you think it'll end if she doesn't stop it?"
Dr. Broughton tapped his forehead with his hand. "This is what I'm
most afraid of." He seized his stick and thrust it under his arm.
"But giving up her performance, I'm afraid, would be like giving up
her life. She was practically born in the circus, you know, and I
suspect from what your wife has told me that her husband fell in love
with her in the circus. Outside of that she seems to have no interest
in anything,--except, of course, her family and her baby. But to take
her out of the circus would be like pulling up a tree by the roots."
Dr. Broughton was so used to making hurried exits from patients' houses
that he lost no time in getting away from Tate. As he went down the
steps his host stood with one hand on the knob of the front door,
thinking. The Doctor had unconsciously given him a most fascinating
suggestion. Around this his mind played as he walked back to the
drawing-room, where his wife was yawning, and gathering, some books to
take upstairs. He said nothing to her about it; before expressing his
fancy, he decided to wait until he saw those curious people.