My brain recovered after a rest, and I conceived a plan of escape from this stronghold, although it was most carefully guarded by my wife and the friends which she had so successfully duped. I used cunning; I wrote a letter to the doctor in which I expressed a haunting dread of insanity, and suggested a trip abroad as a remedy. The doctor fell in with my suggestion, and I at once informed Marie of his opinion against which there was no appeal.
"By doctor's orders!"
Her very formula when she had successfully dictated to the doctor the treatment she wished him to prescribe for her.
She grew pale when she heard it.
"I don't want to leave my country!"
"Your country?... Finland's your country! And as far as I know, there is nothing in Sweden which you could possibly miss; you have no relations here, no friends, no career."
"I refuse to accompany you!"
"Why?"
She hesitated, and after a while continued—
"Because I'm afraid of you! I won't be left alone with you!"