r me. For some moments she gazed upon
me, and then a slight flush rose to her pale cheeks, her fixed stare
wavered, and her eyes fell. I could hear Cutter's long-drawn breath of
excitement. She clasped her hands together and turned away, resuming her
walk. It was strange,--perhaps she really remembered.

"He saved your life in Weissenstein," said Cutter, in loud, clear tones.
"You ought to thank him for it,--you never did."

The unhappy woman paused in her walk, stood still, then came swiftly
towards us, and again paused. Her face had changed completely in its
expression. Her teeth were closely set together, and her lip curled in
scorn, while a dark flush overspread her pale face, and her hands
twisted each other convulsively.

"Do you remember Weissenstein?" asked the professor, in the same
incisive voice, and through his round glasses he fixed his commanding
glance upon her. But as he looked her eyes grew dull, and the blush
subsided from her cheek. With a low, short laugh she turned away.

I started. I had forgotten the laugh behind the latticed wall, and if I
had found time to reflect I should have known, from what John Carvel had
told me, that it could have come from no one but the mad lady, who had
been walking in the garden with her nurse, on that bright evening. It
was the same low, rippling sound, silvery and clear, and it came so
suddenly that I was startled. I thought that the professor sighed as he
heard it. It was, perhaps, a strong evidence of insanity. In all my life
of wandering and various experience I have chanced to be thrown into the
society of but one insane person besides Madame Patoff. That was a
curious case: a hardy old sea-captain, who chanced to make a fortune
upon the New York stock exchange, and went stark mad a few weeks later.
His madness seemed to come from elation at his success, and it was very
curious to watch its progress, and very sad. He was a strong man, and in
all his active life had never touched liquor nor tobacco. Nothing but
wealth could have driven him out of his mind; but within two months of
his acquiring a fortune he was confined in an asylum, and within the
year he died of softening of the brain. I only mention this to show you
that I had had no experience of insanity worth speaking of before I met
Madame Patoff. I knew next to nothing of the signs of the disease.

Madame Patoff turned away, and crossed the room; then she sank down upon
the lounge which I have describ