filled
your ears with tales tending to make you suspicious of your wife and
jealous of a certain man whom I will not name. You knew that your friend
had a grudge against this man, and so for many months turned a deaf ear
to his insinuations. But finally some change which you detected in your
wife's bearing or conversation roused your own suspicions, and you
began to doubt her truth and to curse your blindness, which in a measure
rendered you helpless. The jealous fever grew and had risen to a high
point when one night--a memorable night--this friend met you just as you
were leaving town, and with cruel craft whispered in your ear that the
man you hated was even then with your wife and that if you would return
at once to your home you would find him in her company.

"The demon that lurks at the heart of all men, good or bad, thereupon
took complete possession, of you, and you answered this false friend by
saying that you would not return without a pistol. Whereupon he offered
to take you to his house and give you his. You consented, and getting
rid of your servant by sending him to Poughkeepsie with your excuses,
you entered your friend's automobile.

"You say you bought the pistol, and perhaps you did, but, however
that may be, you left his house with it in your pocket, and declining
companionship, walked home, arriving at the Colonnade a little before
midnight.

"Ordinarily you have no difficulty in recognizing your own doorstep.
But, being in a heated frame of mind, you walked faster than usual and
so passed your own house and stopped at that of Mr. Hasbrouck, one door
beyond. As the entrances of these houses are all alike, there was but
one way by which you could have made yourself sure that you had reached
your own dwelling, and that was by feeling for the doctor's sign at the
side of the door. But you never thought of that. Absorbed in dreams
of vengeance, your sole impulse was to enter by the quickest means
possible. Taking out your night key, you thrust it into the lock. It
fitted, but it took strength to turn it, so much strength that the key
was twisted and bent by the effort. But this incident, which would have
attracted your attention at another time, was lost upon you at this
moment. An entrance had been effected, and you were in too excited a
frame of mind to notice at what cost, or to detect the small differences
apparent in the atmosphere and furnishings of the two houses, trifles
which would have arre