Before we realized it there came a sudden outburst of feeling.

“And now—­they are keeping me here by force!” she cried.

Doctor Burr looked at us significantly, as much as to say, “Just what might be expected, you see.”  Kennedy nodded, but made no effort to stop Mrs. Cranston.

“They have told Roger that I am insane, and I know he must believe it or he would not leave me here.  But their real motive, I can guess, is mercenary.  I can’t complain about my treatment here—­it costs enough.”

By this time she was sitting bolt upright, staring straight ahead as though amazed at her own boldness in speaking so frankly before them.

“I feel all right at times—­then—­it is as though I had a paralysis of the body, but not of the mind—­not of the mind,” she repeated, tensely.  There was a frightened look on her face, and her voice was now wildly appealing.

What would have followed I cannot guess, for at that instant there came a noise outside from another of the rooms as though pandemonium had broken loose.  By the shouting and confusion, one might easily have wondered whether keepers and lunatics might not have exchanged places.

“It is just one of the patients who has escaped from his room,” explained Doctor Burr; “nothing to be alarmed about.  We’ll soon have him quieted.”

Doctor Burr hurried out into the corridor while Miss Giles was looking out of the door.

Quickly Kennedy reached over and abstracted several drops from a bottle of tonic on the table, pouring it into his handkerchief, which he rolled up tightly and stuffed into his pocket.  Mrs. Cranston watched him pleadingly, and clasped her hands in mute appeal, with a hasty glance at Miss Giles.

Kennedy said nothing, either, but rapidly folded up a page of the note-book on which he had been writing and shoved it into Mrs. Cranston’s hand, together with something he had taken from his pocket.  She understood, and quickly placed it in her corsage.

“Read it—­when you are absolutely alone,” he whispered, just as Miss Giles shut the door and turned to us.

The excitement subsided almost as quickly as it had arisen, but it had been sufficient to put a stop to any further study of the case along those lines.  Miss Giles’s keen eyes missed no action or movement of her patient.

Doctor Burr returned shortly.  It was evident from his manner that he wished to have the visit terminated, and Kennedy seemed quite willing to take the hint.  He thanked Mrs. Cranston, and we withdrew quietly, after bidding her good-by in a manner as reassuring as we could make it under the circumstances.

“You see,” remarked Doctor Burr, as we walked down the hall, “she is quite unstrung still.  Mr. Cranston comes up here once in a while, and we notice that after these visits she is, if anything, worse.”

Down the hall a door had been left open, and we could catch a glimpse of a patient rolled in a blanket, while two nurses forced something down his throat.  Doctor Burr hastily closed the door as we passed.