her a brief history of the case and took her into my confidence with regard to treatment.
"I mean to continue the strychnine," I said, "and I wish the patient to be under the impression that she is still having morphia injections. Her nerves will then be less strained than if she thinks she is doing without her accustomed sedative, and the chances of cure will be greater."
The nurse promised to obey all my directions implicitly. She was to inject minute doses of the strychnine at certain intervals, and was also to feed up the patient with milk, strong chicken broth, and champagne. I then went out and telegraphed to Onslow and Oliver, and finally returned to spend the night with my patient.
I shall never forget the fortnight which followed. Notwithstanding the strength which the carefully injected doses strychnine gave the poor girl, her sufferings were terrible. I shall not quickly forget the look of despair in her eyes nor the agonized expression on her young face. I knew she was going through agonies of torture. The first five days were the worst, then gradually and slowly there came longer and longer intervals of comparative relief, until at last there arrived an hour when I had the pleasure of seeing Miss Wilton fall into a long and perfectly natural sleep.
When she awoke, refreshed and calm, and with an altogether new look on her face, I was standing by her bedside.
"Oh, I am better," she said, with a sigh. "I have had a heavenly sleep. How thankful I am that the morphia is beginning to take effect again."
"How do you know that morphia produced that sleep?" I asked.
"How can I doubt it?" she replied. "Nurse injected some into my arm just before I dropped off to sleep."
I looked at the nurse, who smiled and turned away.
I motioned to her to leave the room. I thought the time had come when I might tell Frances Wilton something.
"You are wonderfully better," I said, sitting down by her.
"I have every reason to believe that you will soon be perfectly well."
"You have great faith," she answered, with a blush and something like tears in her eyes; "but what is the use of holding out hope to me? I can never do without morphia. I am its slave. I shall try and take it in smaller quantities in the future, but I can never do without it as long as I live. The agonies I suffered during the fortnight when it ceased to have any effect, can only be understood by those who have gone through them. Dr. Halifax, I must confess the truth; I cannot live without morphia."
"Think of your lover, Miss Wilton," I said. "Think what this means to Captain Oliver."
"I do think of him," she replied. "For his sake I would do much. But I can't break myself of this awful habit even for him. It is useless for me to try—I am too weak."
"Not a bit of it," I said. "Now listen to me. I have some good news for you."
"What is that? What good news can there possibly be for so miserable and wicked a girl?"
"You think the refreshing sleep you have just enjoyed was due to the injection of morphia?"
"Of course it was—nurse injected it."
"She did nothing of the kind—she injected water with a very little strychnine."
"Strychnine! What do you mean?"
"What I say, Miss Wilton. You may rejoice, for you have already conquered that miserable habit. It is a whole fortnight now since any morphia was injected. What you thought was morphia was strychnine injected in very minute quantities, to act as a tonic. You have, indeed, gone through a frightful time; but the worst is over, has been over for days. That refreshing and natural sleep proves you to be not only convalescent, but in short—cured!"
"May we come in?" said a cheerful voice at the door.
"Yes, certainly," I answered, and Mrs. Onslow and Oliver entered the room. I saw Frances Wilton sit up and look rapturously at her lover. I noted the light of love and hope in her eyes.
