‘You can do nothing for me,’ she said.

‘But if he doesn’t love you, what does he want you for?’

‘I don’t know, but I’m beginning to suspect.’

She looked at Arthur steadily.  She was now quite calm.

’I think he wishes to use me for a magical operation.  I don’t know if he’s mad or not.  But I think he means to try some horrible experiment, and I am needful for its success.  That is my safeguard.’

‘Your safeguard?’

’He won’t kill me because he needs me for that.  Perhaps in the process I shall regain my freedom.’

Arthur was shocked at the callousness with which she spoke.  He went up to her and put his hands on her shoulders.

’Look here, you must pull yourself together, Margaret.  This isn’t sane.  If you don’t take care, your mind will give way altogether.  You must come with me now.  When you’re out of his hands, you’ll soon regain your calmness of mind.  You need never see him again.  If you’re afraid, you shall be hidden from him, and lawyers shall arrange everything between you.’

‘I daren’t.’

’But I promise you that you can come to no harm.  Be reasonable.  We’re in London now, surrounded by people on every side.  How do you think he can touch you while we drive through the crowded streets?  I’ll take you straight to Susie.  In a week you’ll laugh at the idle fears you had.’

’How do you know that he is not in the room at this moment, listening to all you say?’

The question was so sudden, so unexpected, that Arthur was startled.  He looked round quickly.

‘You must be mad.  You see that the room is empty.’

’I tell you that you don’t know what powers he has.  Have you ever heard those old legends with which nurses used to frighten our childhood, of men who could turn themselves into wolves, and who scoured the country at night?’ She looked at him with staring eyes.  ’Sometimes, when he’s come in at Skene in the morning, with bloodshot eyes, exhausted with fatigue and strangely discomposed, I’ve imagined that he too ...’  She stopped and threw back her head.  ‘You’re right, Arthur, I think I shall go mad.’

He watched her helplessly.  He did not know what to do.  Margaret went on, her voice quivering with anguish.

’When we were married, I reminded him that he’d promised to take me to his mother.  He would never speak of her, but I felt I must see her.  And one day, suddenly, he told me to get ready for a journey, and we went a long way, to a place I did not know, and we drove into the country.  We seemed to go miles and miles, and we reached at last a large house, surrounded by a high wall, and the windows were heavily barred.  We were shown into a great empty room.  It was dismal and cold like the waiting-room at a station.  A man came in to us, a tall man, in a frock-coat and gold spectacles.  He was introduced to me as Dr Taylor, and then, suddenly, I understood.’