Under Lock and Key; or, Marion Marlowe's Last Role — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— MY QUEEN. ‘ “See here,” she said, finally. “I would like to teust you. Will you keep a secret for me, if I tell you one, Edith?” Miss Taylor looked up quickly, and her lips flew open. | | “You still think she is sane. Is that it, ~ Mary?” she asked, quickly. “T don't think anything about it—I know it,’ whispered Miss Thompson, softly; “and I’d help her out in a minute if I dared.” Miss» Taylor bit her lips and looked # thoughtful for a moment. “Tt won’t do, Mary,” she said, finally, “It is an awful risk. Ten to one she has a screw loose somewhere or other, and you might be doing her an awful wrong; further, you'd get | on the ‘black list,’ and be queered forever. It don’t do to get too sympathetic, Mary.” Miss Thompson sighed, but she could not answer the argument. There was just a pos- _ sibility of her being mistaken in regard to her patient’s condition. “Well, she’s the sanest crazy woman I ever saw,” she said, finally ; “and I thank my lucky star that she isn’t my sister.” She went back to the hospital ward where Marion was lying, and, as she bent over the sleeping girl the tears shone upon her lashes. What would she not do if she only knew the truth; but how could she go about it to determine the accuracy of Marion’s state- ’ ments? A word from another nurse brought her back to her surroundings. She was holding out a morning paper and pointing to a para- graph. : “There! I guess that settles it,” she said, in a low tone. “This paper says that Miss Cornelia Gordon, a beautiful New York girl, has just been committed to a neighboring * sanitarium, suffering from the hallucination that she is a popular actress and an heiress; and it also says that she has beeir pestering a rich young society man with her attentions for some time.” @ Miss Thompson seized the paper and read the account eagerly. It was the first thing that had reconciled her to her new patient’s condition. She was satisfied now that her charge was crazy. | “Well, I can’t help wishing that she would stay asleep all day,” she answered, as she 11 handed back the paper. “I’ve been in this business for seven years, and this is the first patient that has ever made me feel uncom- fortable.”’ “Tt’s her big, honest eyes and girlish face, I guess,” said the other nurse, soberly. “We don’t usually see fresh faces here. They are all seamed and furrowed from rum, mor- phine or some such stuff. She’s a perfect lit- tle innocent. I feel sorry for her.” She moved away softly, and at that min- ute Marion opened her eyes. The frantic de- lirium of a few hours of nervousness had en- tirely passed away, and as she gazed earnest- ly at the nurse, she was as rational as ever. “You were speaking of me—TI am sure of it,’ she said, faintly. “What is it, Miss Thompson? Have you heard from my friends? Has my lover learned at last of this fearful blunder ?” | It was hard for the attendant to answer the question, but, now that she felt sure that her charge was deluded, her reply came readily. “Your lover will come! Be patient, little girl. Try to sleep some more, so that you will be well and strong when he comes for you. Here, take this medicine, my dear; it will make you sleepy.” | She leaned over the cot as she spoke, but Marion raised her hand in aversion. “No, no! I do not want to sleep! Do take it away, please, Miss Thompson! Oh, I must keep wide awake, don’t you see that I must? And I must try to think of some way to escape from my prison!” She attempted to rise as she spoke, but a firm hand held her. Miss Thompson’s face had suddenly become so stern that it was al- most ugly. “You must take this medicine, Miss Gor- don,” she said, firmly. “You are here for treatment, and you must obey orders.” She pressed the spoon to the young girl’s lips as she spoke, but in a second Marion dashed it to the floor and then sprang up and confronted her. “I will not take it!” she cried, in a frenzied voice. “It is some of that stuff that they gave me yesterday! Oh, how can you be so cruel as to ask me to swallow a drug that will-steal my senses away? Are you all fiends incar- nate, instead of women ?” COMIC OOO SH 5(CO)