ring the recital--so
well that Josie felt it was safe to go into detail concerning her visit
to Atlanta, even to the ironing of Chester Hunt's back.

"Why, why didn't you burn him?" she laughed, "but thank you for the
pepper you put on his chop." That laugh reassured Josie as to the
sanity of Mrs. Waller.

"They have told me that my children have forgotten me and never asked
for me. Chester Hunt has done his best to make me think that they are
depraved beyond belief, always pretending to love me and condole with
me because of their lack of feeling. My poor babies! Never have I
doubted them--never for an instant!"

Josie then told her of the letter Chester Hunt had written Dr. Harper
and of his intention to marry her willy nilly.

"Marry me! But I am married! Ah, I see you think I am demented because
I say that, but my husband is alive. I know it as well as I know that I
am here in this awful prison-like place and that you have come from
outside to help me. I know it as I know that you are an honest, kind
girl with more sense in your little finger than Chester Hunt and that
wretched Dink have in their whole make-up. I know he is alive because
if he had died I'd have felt it. We were so close, so in sympathy, that
nothing could happen to one without the other divining it. There was
and is a bond between us that is in a way supernatural. I know and feel
at all times that he is unhappy, miserable and in trouble, but he is
not dead.

"If he were dead this load would be lifted from my heart. I'd be glad
again knowing that he was at peace and his troubles were over. If I
could get out of this place I could find him. I know I could. Sometimes
I think he is quite near me--not near like a spirit but in flesh. Once
I ran through the grounds calling to him. I could not help it.
Something urged me on, and then it was they put me in close
confinement, declaring I was raving crazy.

"We often used to talk of that sympathy that existed between us. It was
like second sight, only it seemed natural and normal. I was so
dependent on him and he on me. Neither of us had any relations. This
stepbrother of his was the only tie he had and of course that is not a
blood tie. Chester Hunt was the only shadow that ever came between us.
I always hated the man but Stephen loved him and I tried to conceal my
feelings in regard to him. I wish I had been more open and honest about
it now, because then my dear husband would not have put me so in t