第62章 PART II(8)

"Nobody?"he repeated."Tell me this,if you please:Wasn't Mr.Keller cured out of the blue-glass bottle--like me?"(Who had told him this?Joseph might have told him;Minna might have told him.It was no time for inquiry;the one thing needful was to eradicate the idea from his mind.She answered boldly,"Quite right,so far"--and waited to see what came of it.)"Very well,"said Jack,"Mr.Keller was cured out of the blue-glass bottle,like me.And _I_was poisoned.Now?"She flatly contradicted him again."You were _not_poisoned!"Jack crossed the room,with a flash of the old Bedlam light in his eyes,and confronted her at the fire place."The devil is the father of lies,"he said,lifting his hand solemnly."No lies!I heard my master the Doctor say I was poisoned."She was ready with her answer."Your master the Doctor said that to frighten you.He didn't want you to taste his medicines in his absence again.You drank double what any person ought to have drunk,you greedy Jack,when you tasted that pretty violet-colored medicine in your master's workshop.And you had yourself to thank--not poison,when you fell ill."Jack looked hard at her.He could reason so far as that he and Mr.Keller must have taken the same poison,because he and Mr.Keller had been cured out of the same bottle.But to premise that he had been made ill by an overdose of medicine,and that Mr.Keller had been made ill in some other way,and then to ask,how two different illnesses could both have been cured by the same remedy--was an effort utterly beyond him.He hung his head sadly,and went back to the table.

"I wish I hadn't asked you about it,"he said."You puzzle me horribly."But for that unendurable sense of perplexity,he would still have doubted and distrusted her as resolutely as ever.As it was,his bewildered mind unconsciously took its refuge in belief."If it was medicine,"asked the poor creature vacantly,"what is the medicine good for?"At those words,an idea of the devil's own prompting entered Madame Fontaine's mind.Still standing at the fireplace,she turned her head slowly,and looked at the cupboard.

"It's a better remedy even than the blue-glass bottle,"she said;"it cures you so soon when you are tired,or troubled in your mind,that Ihave brought it away with me from Wurzburg,to use it for myself."Jack's face brightened with a new interest."Oh,"he said eagerly,"do let me see it again!"She put her hand in her pocket,took out the key,and hesitated at the last moment.

"Just one look at it,"Jack pleaded,"to see if it's the same."She unlocked the cupboard.

CHAPTER V

Jack attempted to follow her,and look in.She waved him back with her hand.

"Wait at the window,"she said,"where you can see the medicine in the light."She took the bottle of "Alexander's Wine"from the chest,and having locked the cupboard again,replaced the key in her pocket."Do you remember it?"she asked,showing him the bottle.

He shuddered as he recognized the color."Medicine?"he said to himself--troubled anew by doubts which he was not able to realize."Idon't remember how much I took when I tasted it.Do you?""I have told you already.You took twice the proper dose.""Did my master the Doctor say that?"

"Yes."

"And did he tell you what the proper dose was?""Yes."

Jack was not able to resist this."I should like to see it!"he said eagerly."My master was a wonderful man--my master knew everything."Madame Fontaine looked at him.He waited to see his request granted,like a child waiting to see a promised toy."Shall I measure it out,and show you?"she said."I suppose you don't know what two drachms mean?""No,no!Let me see it."

She looked at him again and hesitated.With a certain reluctance of manner,she opened her dressing-case.As she took out a medicine-measuring-glass,her hand began to tremble.A faint perspiration showed itself on her forehead.She put the glass on the table,and spoke to Jack.

"What makes you so curious to see what the dose is?"she said."Do you think you are likely to want some of it yourself?"His eyes looked longingly at the poison."It cures you when you are tired or troubled in your mind,"he answered,repeating her own words."I am but a little fellow--and I'm more easily tired sometimes than you would think."She passed her handkerchief over her forehead."The fire makes the room rather warm,"she said.

Jack took no notice of the remark;he had not done yet with the confession of his little infirmities.He went on proving his claim to be favored with some of the wonderful remedy.

"And as for being troubled in my mind,"he said,"you haven't a notion how bad I am sometimes.If I'm kept away from Mistress for a whole day--when I say or do something wrong,you know--I tell you this,I'm fit to hang myself!If you were to see me,I do think your heart would be touched;I do indeed!"Instead of answering him,she rose abruptly,and hurried to the door.

"Surely there's somebody outside,"she exclaimed--"somebody wanting to speak to me!""I don't hear it,"said Jack;"and mine are the quickest ears in the house.""Wait a minute,and let me see."

She opened the door:closed it again behind her;and hurried along the lonely corridor.Throwing up the window at the end,she put her head out into the keen wintry air,with a wild sense of relief.She was almost beside herself,without knowing why.Poor Jack's innocent attempts to persuade her to his destruction had,in their pitiable simplicity,laid a hold on that complex and terrible nature which shook it to its center.