She invited him eagerly
to enter when he tapped.
"I'm nervous, horribly nervous," she said. "Give me some more cognac
--anything."
"You'll have nothing more tonight. I shall give you a dose of
valerian."
She swallowed the noxious mixture with a grimace and was asleep in a
few moments.
XXX
The doctor was still very busy but he returned to the hotel four
times a day and gave her small doses of whatever liquor she demanded.
In a short time he diluted them with Napa Soda water. She was always
pacing the room when he entered and looked at him like a wild animal
at bay. But she never mentioned Masters' name, even when her nerves
whipped her suddenly to hysterics; and although he sometimes thought
he should go mad with the horror of it all, he had faith in his
method, and in her own pride, as soon as the first torments wore
down. She refused to walk out of doors or to wear anything but a
dressing gown; she took her slender meals in her room.
But Madeleine's sufferings were more mental than physical, although
she was willing the doctor should form the natural conclusion. She
was possessed by the fear that a cure would be forced upon her; she
was indifferent even to the taste of liquor, and had merely preferred
it formerly to bitter or nauseous tonics; in Society it had been a
necessary stimulant, when her strength began to fail, nothing more.
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