ondered possessed his heart.

On the afternoon of Trent's visit, Adams left his office a little
earlier than usual, for he had promised Connie that he would take her to
see a new ballet at her favourite music hall. When he reached his house
she was already dressed, and while he changed his clothes in his
dressing-room, she fluttered restlessly about the upper floor, looking
remarkably fresh and pretty in a gown of delicate blossom pink. From a
little distance the faint discolour of her skin, the withered lines
about her mouth and temples were lost in a general impression of rosy
fairness; and as he watched her hurried movements, through the door of
her bedroom, Adams found it almost impossible to associate this
sparkling beauty with the half-frenzied creature he had nursed two weeks
ago. One of her "spells of joy," as she called them was evidently upon
her; and even as he accepted thankfully the startling change in her
appearance, there shot into his mind an acute suspicion as to the
immediate cause.

"Connie," he said, standing in front of her with his hair brush in his
hand, "will you give me your word of honour that you have taken nothing
to-day except your proper medicine?"

A quick resentment showed in her eyes, but she veiled it a moment
afterward by a cunning expression of injured innocence. "Why, how could
I?" she asked, in a hurt voice, "the nurse was with me."

It was true, he knew--the nurse had been with her all day, and yet as he
looked more closely at her animated face and brilliant eyes the
suspicion hardened to absolute conviction in his mind. The change from
the fragile weakness of the morning to this palpitating eagerness could
mean only the one thing, he knew--Connie had found some secret way to
gratify her craving and the inevitable reaction would set in before many
hours.

Turning away again he finished his dressing to the accompaniment of her
high-pitched ceaseless prattle. Her conversation was empty and almost
inconsequent, filled with rambling descriptions of the newest gowns,
with broken bits of intimate personal gossip, but the very rush of words
which came from her served to create an atmosphere of merriment at
dinner. A little later at the music hall she insisted upon talking to
Adams in exaggerated whispers, until the pointless jokes she made about
the arms or the legs of the dancers, sent her into convulsions of
noiseless hysterical laughter. Through it all Adams sat patiently
wonderi