by which I should no longer be annoyed.

"It was necessary for me to return to America when I came of age, in order
to sign certain papers and take full charge of the property. Richard knew
this. He seems to have had some way of finding out everything my uncle
did.

"He wrote telling me of a dear friend of his mother, who was soon to pass
through Vienna, and who by some misfortune had been deprived of a position
as companion and chaperon to a young girl who was travelling. He said it
had occurred to him that perhaps he could serve us both by suggesting to
me that she be my travelling companion on the voyage. He knew I would not
want to travel alone, and he sent her address and all sorts of
credentials, with a message from his mother that she would feel perfectly
safe about me if I went in this woman's guardianship.

"I really did need a travelling companion, of course, having failed to get
my dear old lady to undertake the voyage, so I thought it could do no
harm. I went to see her, and found her pretty and frail and sad. She made
a piteous appeal to me, and though I was not greatly taken with her, I
decided she would do as well as any one for a companion.

"She did not bother me during the voyage, but fluttered about and was
quite popular on board, especially with a tall, disagreeable man with a
cruel jaw and small eyes, who always made me feel as if he would gloat
over any one in his power. I found out that he was a physician, a
specialist in mental diseases, so Mrs. Chambray told me, and she talked a
great deal about his skill and insight into such maladies.

"At New York my cousin Richard met us and literally took possession of us.
Without my knowledge, the cruel-looking doctor was included in the party.
I did not discover it until we were on the train, bound, as I supposed,
for my old home just beyond Buffalo. It was some time since I had been in
New York, and I naturally did not notice much which way we were going. The
fact was, every plan was anticipated, and I was told that all arrangements
had been made. Mrs. Chambray began to treat me like a little child and
say: 'You see we are going to take good care of you, dear, so don't worry
about a thing.'

"I had taken the drawing-room compartment, not so much because I had a
headache, as I told them, as because I wanted to get away from their
society. My cousin's marked devotion became painful to me. Then, too, the
attentions and constant watchfulness of the disa