The nurse was getting worn out. Kitty Fagan would have had the priest
come to the house and sprinkle it with holy water. The two women
were beginning to get nervous themselves. The Rev. Mr. Stoker said in
confidence to Miss Silence, that there was reason to fear she might have
been given over for a time to the buffetings of Satan, and that perhaps
his (Mr. Stoker's) personal attentions might be useful in that case. And
so it appeared that the "young doctor" was the only being left with whom
she had any complete relations and absolute sympathy. She had become so
passive in his hands that it seemed as if her only healthy life was, as
it were, transmitted through him, and that she depended on the transfer
of his nervous power, as the plant upon the light for its essential
living processes.

The two young men who had met in so unexpected a manner on board
the ship Swordfish had been reasonably discreet in relating their
adventures. Myrtle Hazard may or may not have had the plan they
attributed to her; however that was, they had looked rather foolish when
they met, and had not thought it worth while to be very communicative
about the matter when they returned. It had at least given them a chance
to become a little better acquainted with each other, and it was an
opportunity which the elder and more artful of the two meant to turn to
advantage.

Of all Myrtle's few friends only one was in the habit of seeing her
often during this period, namely, Olive Eveleth, a girl so quiet and
sensible that she, if anybody, could be trusted with her. But Myrtle's
whole character seemed to have changed, and Olive soon found that she
was in some mystic way absorbed into another nature. Except when the
physician's will was exerted upon her, she was drifting without any
self-directing power, and then any one of those manifold impulses which
would in some former ages have been counted as separate manifestations
on the part of distinct demoniacal beings might take possession of her.
Olive did little, therefore, but visit Myrtle from time to time to learn
if any change had occurred in her condition. All this she reported to
Cyprian, and all this was got out of him by Mr. William Murray Bradshaw.

That gentleman was far from being pleased with the look of things as
they were represented. What if the Doctor, who was after all in the
prime of life and younger-looking than some who were born half a dozen
years after him, should get a hold on this