"Halliway!" I said. "Halliway--Halliway--_Halliway_! They live in the
big house out by the Chestnut Trees! They only come here in the Summers!
Except now! The Doctors say it's Mysteria!"
"The Doctors say _what_ is Mysteria?" said Old Man Smith.
"What Annie's got!" I explained. "What made her lose her mind! Mysteria
is what they call it."
"U--m--m," said Old Man Smith. He reached way down into his pocket. He
pulled out a box. He opened the box. It was full of pieces of colored
glass! And of china! He juggled them in his hands. They looked gay. Red
they were! And green! And white! And yellow! And blue! He snatched out
all the blue ones and hid 'em quick in his pocket. "She seems sort of
partial to blue," he said.
There was one funny big piece of glass that was awful shiny. When he
held it up to the light it glinted and glowed all sorts of colors. It
made your eyes feel very calm.
Annie Halliway reached out her hand for it. She didn't say a word. She
just stared at it with her hand all reached out.
But Old Man Smith didn't give it to her. He just sat and stared at her
eyes.
Her eyes never moved from the shining bit of glass. They looked awful
funny. Bigger and bigger they got! And rounder and rounder! And stiller
and stiller!
It was like a puppy-dog pointing a little bird in the grass. It made you
feel queer. It made you feel all sort of hollow inside. It made your
legs wobble.
Carol's mouth was wide open.
So was Old Man Smith's.
Old Man Smith reached out suddenly and put the shining bit of glass
right into Annie Halliway's hand. It fell through her fingers. But her
hand stayed just where it was, reaching out into the air.
"Put down your arm!" said Old Man Smith.
Annie Halliway put it down. Her eyes were still staring very wide.
"Look!" said Old Man Smith. "Look!" He dropped several pieces of colored
glass china into her lap.
She chose the handle of a red tea cup and a little chunk of yellow
crockery. She stared and stared at them. But all the time it was as
though her eyes didn't see them. All the time it was as though she was
looking at something very far away. Then all of a sudden she began to
jingle them together in her hand,--the little piece of red china and the
chunk of yellow bowl! And swing her shoulders! And stamp her foot! It
looked like dancing. It sounded like clappers.
"Oh, Ho! _This_ is Spain!" she laughed.
Old Man Smith snatched all the blue pieces of china and glass out of his
pocket again and tossed them into her lap. He looked sort of mad.
"Spain?" he said. "Spain? What in the Old Harry has a handful of glass
and china got to do with Spain?"
"Harry?" said Annie Halliway. "Old--Harry?" Her eyes looked wider and
blinder every minute. It was as though everything in her was wide awake
except the thing she was thinking about. "Har--ry?" she puzzled.
"Harry?" she dropped the red and yellow china from her hand and picked
up a piece of blue glass and offered it to Old Man Smith. "Why, _that_
is Harry!" she said. She reached for the pig-tail that had the blue
Larkspur braided into it. She pointed to the pig-tail that had the blue
fan braided into it. "Why, _that_ is Harry!" she said. She made a little
sob in her throat.
Old Man Smith jingled his hands at her.
"There--There--There, my Pretty!" he said. "Never mind--Never mind!"
He opened his hands. There were some little teeny-tiny pieces of plain
glass in his hands. Little round knobs like beads they were. Very
shining. They made a nice jingle.
When Annie Halliway saw them she screamed! And snatched them in her
hand! And threw them away just as far as she could! All over the grass
she threw them!
"I will not!" she screamed. "_I will not! I will not!_" Her tears were
awful.
When she got through screaming her face looked like a wet cloth that had
everything else wrung out of it except shadows.
"Where--is--Harry?" said Old Man Smith. He said it very slowly. And then
all over again. "Where--is--Harry?--You wouldn't have dar'st not tell
him if you'd known."
Annie Halliway started to pick up some blue glass again. Then she
stopped and looked all around her. It was a jerky stop. Her jaw sort of
dropped.
"Harry--is--in--prison!" she said. Even though she'd said it herself she
seemed to be awfully surprised at the news. She shook and shook her head
as though she was trying to wake up the idea that was asleep. Her eyes
were all scrunched up now with trying to remember about it. She dragged
the back of her hands across her forehead. First one hand and then the
other. She opened her eyes very wide again and looked at Old Man Smith.
"Where--is--Harry?" said Old Man Smith.
Annie Halliway never took her eyes from Old Man Smith's face.
"It--It was the night we crossed the border from France to Spain," she
said. Her voice sounded very funny and far away. It sounded like
reciting a lesson too. "There were seven of us and a teacher
from the Paris art school," she recited. "It--It was the March
holiday.----There--There--was a woman----a strange woman in the next
compartment who made friends with me.--She seemed to be crazy over my
hair.--She asked if she might braid it for the night."
Without any tears at all Annie Halliway began to sob again.
"When they waked us up at the Customs," she sobbed, "Harry came running!
His face was awful! 'She's braided diamonds in your hair!' he cried. 'I
heard her talking with her accomplice! A hundred thousand dollars' worth
of diamonds! Smugglers and murderers both they are!--Everybody will be
searched!'--He tore at my braids! I tore at my braids! The diamonds
rattled out! Harry tried to catch them!--He pushed me back into the
train! I saw soldiers running!--I thought they were going to shoot him!
He thought they were going to shoot him!--I saw his eyes!--He looked
so--so surprised!--I'd never noticed before how blue his eyes were!--I
tell you I saw his eyes!--I couldn't speak!--There wasn't anybody to
explain just why he had his hands full of diamonds!--I _saw_ his eyes! I
tell you I couldn't speak!--I tell you I _never_ spoke!--My tongue went
dead in my mouth! For months I never spoke!--I've only just begun to
speak again!--I've only just----"
She started to jump up from the ground where she was sitting! She
couldn't!--She had braided Old Man Smith and his wheel chair into her
hair! When she saw what she had done she toppled right over on her face!
And fainted all out!
Over behind the lilac bush somebody screamed.
It was Annie Halliway's Mother! With her was a strange gentleman who had
come all the way from New York to try and cure Annie Halliway. The
strange gentleman was some special kind of a doctor.
"Hush--Hush!" the Special Doctor kept saying to everybody. "This is a
very crucial moment! Can't you see that this a very crucial moment?" He
pointed to Annie Halliway on the grass. Her Mother knelt beside her
trying very hard to comb Old Man Smith and his wheel-chair out of her
pig-tail. "Speak to her!" said the Doctor. "Speak to her very gently!"
"Annie?" cried her Mother. "Annie?--Annie--_Annie?_"
Annie Halliway opened her eyes very slowly and looked up. It was a brand
new kind of a look. It had a bottom to it instead of being just through
and through and through. There was a little smile in it too. It was a
pretty look.
"Why, Mother," said Annie Halliway. "Where am I?"
The Special Man from New York made a queer little sound in his throat.
"Thank God!" he said. "She's all right _now_!"
It seemed pretty quick to me.
"You mean--" I said, "that her Mysteria is all cured--now?"
"Not _Mys_teria," said the Special Man from New York, _"Hys_teria!"
"No!--_Her_steria!" corrected Old Man Smith.
The Special Man from New York began to laugh.
But Annie Halliway's Mother began to cry.
"Oh, just suppose we'd never found her?" she cried. She looked at Carol.
She looked at me. She glared a little. But not so awfully much. "When
you naughty children ran away with her?" she cried. "And we couldn't
find her anywhere?--And the Doctor came? And there was only an hour to
spare?--And we got a horse and drove round anywhere? And--And----"
"I wouldn't have missed it for anything!" said the Special Man from New
York.
"And all your appointments waiting?" cried Annie Halliway's Mother.
"Darn the appointments!" said the Special Man from New York. He slanted
his head and looked at Old Man Smith. "We arrived," he said, "just at
the moment when the young lady was gazing so--so intently at the piece
of shiny glass." He made a funny grunt in his throat. "Let me
congratulate you, Mr.--Mr. Smith!" he said. "Your treatment was most
efficient!--Your hypnosis was perfect! Your----"
"Hip _nothing_!" said Old Man Smith.
"Of course, in a case like this," said the Special Man from New York,
"the Power of Suggestion is always----"
"All young folks," said Old Man Smith, "are cases of one kind or
another--and the most powerful suggestion that I can make is that
somebody find 'Harry!'"
"'Harry?'" said Annie Halliway's Mother. "'_Harry?_'--Why, I've got four
letters at home for Annie in my desk now--from some im--impetuous young
man who signs himself 'Harry!'--He seems to be in an Architect's office
in Paris! 'Robin' is what he calls Annie!--'_Dearest_ Robin'----"
"Eh?" said Annie Halliway. "What? _Where?_" She sat bolt upright! She
scrambled to her feet! She started for the carriage!
Her Mother had to run to catch her.
The Special Man from New York followed them just as fast as he could.