By which the soul works out a phase of existence—
Each member responds when the soul moves the lever
Unless overcome by abnormal resistance.
Ever since the morning that Lady Van Tyne confided her belief in Maurice Sinclair\'s Satanic individuality to her family physician, the remorseful Dr. Seward was imbued with an undying curiosity to learn more of this human phenomenon. But the abduction of Stella, coming so suddenly upon them, made it almost impossible to indulge his interest in that direction.
Naturally he would not care to mention the subject to the grief tortured mother, and as to Lady Van Tyne, her excitement rendered her totally incoherent whenever the subject was[Pg 134] broached. Another reason for sensitiveness on the part of Dr. Seward, when in the presence of Mrs. Sinclair, may have lain in the knowledge of his guilty secret, the unburdening of which, would have been to press the dregs of shame to Lady Van Tyne\'s lips and pierce the devoted mourner of Archibald Sinclair where her love and faith were tenderest. Thus it was not until after the restoration of Stella to her foster mother\'s arms that the impatient physician learned ought of the young man in whom he had taken so unaccountable an interest.
It was now some time after Stella\'s recovery and Dr. Seward was sitting, for a brief social call, with Mrs. Sinclair in her pleasant parlor. Dr. Seward had been a faithful friend for years and now that her darling was safe, Mrs. Sinclair told him freely of Stella\'s unfortunate experience and of the information which she received of her son during her brief call upon Elizabeth Merril\'s grandparents.
The old physician was deeply interested in the narrative and made occasional notes on one of his visiting cards in reference to the matter. The[Pg 135] names of Lawrence Maynard and Elizabeth Merril were heavily underscored and the card placed carefully in his pocket.
The doctor laid great weight upon the absence of intuitive, motherly affection in Mrs. Sinclair\'s case at her son\'s appearance when she had clearly explained her feelings to her old adviser, but she only saw in his rigid cross questioning the life long habit of scientific analysis and gave little thought to the problem which the physician was trying, in his clever brain, to solve. More interested than he cared to admit, Dr. Seward only waited a few days before going to G—— St., as had Mrs. Sinclair before him.
The aged couple, burdened with sorrow, were only waiting the hour when, hand in hand, they should enter the dark valley of the shadow of death, even as they had walked through the many checkered paths of a life of nearly four score years.
Perhaps it was a mercy that their trusting hearts were spared the actual knowledge of Elizabeth\'s fate, as the sweet memory of her childhood and girlish days was always a solace even in their moments of grief. Could they have seen her at[Pg 136] any time during the year that had now elapsed since her disappearance, the misery and squalor of her surroundings and the shame of her one error, would have occasioned their virtuous souls far more anguish than the awful death which they supposed to have been her fate. Calmly, and with unvarying precision, the white haired woman related to Dr. Seward the only crumbs of information it had been her lot to gain, and from another room she brought a small, oddly shaped vial, containing a dark brown powder, which she said she had found in his apartments when her eccentric, young lodger had left.
The vial was without a label and heedful of Mr. Maynard\'s frequent warnings the cork had never been removed.
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CHAPTER XIX. SAFE IN THE ARMS OF LOVE.
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CHAPTER XXI. A PERFECT union.
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