Keeping his back turned on the bed, he shows a bottle to the Countess.
It is labelled "Chloroform." She understands that my Lord is to be
removed from his room in a convenient state of insensibility.
In what part of the palace is he to be hidden? As they open
the door to go out, the Countess whispers that question
to the Baron. The Baron whispers back, "In the vaults!"
The curtain falls.'
CHAPTER XXVIII
So the Second Act ended.
Turning to the Third Act, Henry looked wearily at the pages
as he let them slip through his fingers. Both in mind and body,
he began to feel the need of repose.
In one important respect, the later portion of the manuscript
differed from the pages which he had just been reading.
Signs of an overwrought brain showed themselves, here and there,
as the outline of the play approached its end. The handwriting grew
worse and worse. Some of the longer sentences were left unfinished.
In the exchange of dialogue, questions and answers were not always
attributed respectively to the right speaker. At certain intervals
the writer's failing intelligence seemed to recover itself for a while;
only to relapse again, and to lose the thread of the narrative more
hopelessly than ever.
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