d--I say it, believe me, with deep reluctance--we must
draw a cordon about you, and protect you from yourself. Pray understand,
madame, it is a protective cordon only, and your own action may relax it
at any time; but your actions will be watched, as it is my duty to tell
you, to the extremest scruple.'

'What do you mean to do? Paul heard her ask in a husky, panting voice,
which made him figure in his own mind a hunted creature almost run to
ground.

'Nothing more,' Laurent replied, 'nothing more, madame, believe
me--nothing more than is dictated by the necessities of the case. You
have an ordonnance dating from Paris.

I have instructed the pharmacien that he is no longer to respect it.'

Annette whined at this like a child robbed of a toy.

'I have forbidden him this morning,' Laurent pursued, 'to supply you,
without my special direction, with any drug whatever, and I have given
him particular orders about the eau'des Carmes. I am now about to tell
the hotel people that you are under my care and treatment, and that you
will be allowed only a measured quantity of wine per diem.'

'You mean to expose me to them?' Annette asked

'I do not propose to expose madame to anybody,' Laurent responded, 'but
if madame chooses to expose herself----'

The listener could imagine the shrug of the broad shoulders and the
outward cast of the persuasive hands.

'Voyons, madame,' pursued the doctor, 'we wish nothing but your good,
but that we are determined to accomplish. I have nothing to add to what
I have said already, and perhaps it is time that you should see your
husband.'

Paul hastily thrust his feet into his slippers, and awaited the opening
of the door.

'He is there,' said Laurent; 'he has probably listened to every word we
have spoken.'

Paul sat trembling on the bed-edge. The imminent interview disturbed him
strangely, and set all manner of conflicting tides flowing in heart and
brain. He was part coward and part hero; ready to face everything and
to run away from everything. His pity for Annette was pity, and no more;
his sympathy for Paul Armstrong amounted to a passion. He strove to
bring himself to what he conceived to be a more fitting mood, but whilst
he struggled with himself the inner door of the room in which he sat
was suddenly torn open, and Annette stood before him. He could not have
believed, without that actual visual revelation, that such a wreck
could have been achieved in so small a space of